Trainline revenues shrink by 75% as refunds and reduced traffic impact figures

A UK travel service has today announced that its revenue shrank by nearly 75 per cent over the last year.

Trainline, an online ticketing service, reported that its group revenues for its 2021 financial year dropped to £67m, a 74 per cent fall from the previous year’s £261m.

It also recorded a drop in net ticket sales, which decreased from £3,727m in 2020 to £783m.

The company said that as well as reduced traffic due to the pandemic, the low figures were partially driven by a high number of refunds as travel plans were cancelled early in the year.

Jody Ford, CEO of Trainline, commented: “The last twelve months have clearly been challenging for the industry.

“However, we are confident we will see more customers booking rail travel online and a continued market shift to digital when government lockdown restrictions ease, as we did last summer.

“Over the year we have kept our foot on the accelerator improving the customer experience, which means we are well positioned to capitalise on this shift to online and digital, and to support rail industry recovery when people start travelling again.

“In particular, we have leveraged our customer insights and data to understand the ‘new commuter’ and invested in app technology that will support the UK roll-out of new Flexi Tickets.

“As I step into the CEO role, I am excited by Trainline’s huge potential and its purpose. One of our major strengths is our people, and I want to thank them for their response to the pandemic, for continuing to innovate on behalf of our customers and for their work positioning us to support our industry partners for the recovery.

“We remain committed to championing rail as a greener mode of travel for millions of customers around Europe, and to driving the significant long-term growth opportunity for this business.”

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