Light rail and tram statistics, England: year ending March 2022
Published 24 August 2022
Applies to England
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About this release
This release presents the latest annual information on light rail and tram systems in England during the financial year ending March 2022. The release covers light rail and tram use, infrastructure, revenue and passenger experience.
This publication covers 8 urban systems that are predominantly surface-running (see Table 1 for a list of systems covered). Smaller systems (for example, heritage railway and airport transit systems) are not included. London Underground, Glasgow Subway and Edinburgh Trams are also excluded but statistics for these systems are included in the associated tables.
As chart 1 shows, in the year ending March 2022, light rail and tram use in England more than doubled from the year ending March 2021, up to 171.5 million passenger journeys. However, it remained well below pre-pandemic levels
Chart 1: Light rail and tram passenger journeys (millions): England, annually year ending March 1984 to year ending March 2022 - LRT0101
Summary figures
Compared with the year ending March 2021, in the year ending March 2022 passenger journeys increased on all of the 8 light rail systems by between 38.2% (West Midlands Metro) and 281.8% (Blackpool Tramway). Vehicle miles also increased or stayed the same for all systems except West Midlands Metro, for whom vehicle miles decreased by 18.2% in the year ending March 2022 when compared to the year ending March 2021. This is likely to reflect the fact that services were suspended or operating at reduced frequency on several occasions during the year ending March 2022 due to technical issues. Increases in vehicle miles varied from 4.0% (Manchester Metrolink) to 100.0% (Blackpool Tramway).
Details of factors impacting on annual figures including the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, planned closures, weather related closures and technical equipment failures can be found in the quality report.
Table 1: Summary of the latest annual light rail and tram figures (year ending March 2022) compared with the previous year (year ending March 2021)
| Passenger journeys (millions) | % change | Vehicle miles (millions) | % change | Passenger revenue (£millions) | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 171.5 | 109.9% | 20.9 | 7.7% | 254.1 | 91.8% |
| London systems | 96.3 | 87.7% | 5.2 | 2.4% | 121.8 | 85.1% |
| Docklands Light Railway | 77.2 | 94.5% | 3.2 | 0.0% | 104.9 | 93.2% |
| London Trams | 19.1 | 64.7% | 2.0 | 5.3% | 16.9 | 47.0% |
| England outside London systems | 75.2 | 147.4% | 15.7 | 9.8% | 132.3 | 98.6% |
| Nottingham Express Transit | 9.1 | 167.6% | 1.8 | 0.0% | 12.0 | 122.2% |
| West Midlands Metro | 4.7 | 38.2% | 0.9 | -18.2% | 10.0 | 72.4% |
| Sheffield Supertram | 6.9 | 146.6% | 1.4 | 27.3% | 10.9 | 70.3% |
| Tyne and Wear Metro | 24.3 | 158.8% | 3.3 | 26.9% | 41.4 | 102.9% |
| Manchester Metrolink | 26.0 | 152.4% | 7.8 | 4.0% | 52.6 | 96.3% |
| Blackpool Tramway | 4.2 | 281.8% | 0.6 | 100.0% | 5.3 | 178.9% |
The impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the number of light rail and tram passenger journeys has been less marked in the year ending March 2022 than the previous year ending March 2021, due to there being fewer restrictions on movement and activities during this period. Other factors such as the service disruption due to technical faults on West Midlands Metro will also have had an effect on the number of passenger journeys in the year to March 2022
Chart 2 shows that light rail and tram passenger journeys climbed steadily following the third national lockdown. The introduction of Plan B measures in December 2021, implemented in response to the rising wave of the Omicron variant, was accompanied by a fall in light rail and tram passenger numbers to around 50% of pre-pandemic levels, down from around 90% prior to the introduction of the measures. After the measures ended at the end of January 2022, passenger journeys rose again, reaching just over 80% of pre-pandemic levels in mid-March 2022.
Chart 2: Light rail and tram patronage in England, March 2020 to March 2022
Passenger journeys
In England, in the year ending March 2022, passenger journeys on light rail and tram systems increased to 171.5 million, an increase of 109.9% compared with the previous year where there were 81.7 million passenger journeys.
As chart 3 shows, the highest number of journeys in the year to March 2022 was seen on the Docklands Light Railway, with 77.2 million passenger journeys. Blackpool Tramway had the fewest journeys, with 4.2 million.
Chart 3: Light rail and tram passenger journeys (millions) by system, England year ending March 2022 LRT0101
Chart 4 shows that the average number of light rail and tram journeys per head was 9.8 in the year ending March 2022 compared with 4.6 journeys per head in the year ending March 2021, a 113.0% increase. The average number of journeys per head remains below pre-pandemic levels (14.9 in the year ending March 2020).
Chart 4: Light rail and tram passenger journeys per head: London and England outside London, annually from year ending March 2012 LRT0109
Concessionary journeys
In England, in the year ending March 2022, there were 22.6 million concessionary journeys on light rail and tram systems. This is an increase of 117.3% when compared to the year ending March 2021 figure of 10.4 million. Chart 5 shows that Manchester Metrolink had the most concessionary passenger journeys in the year ending March 2022, with 6.5 million. Blackpool Tramway had the least, with 0.3 million.
Chart 5: Light rail and tram concessionary journeys (millions) by system: England, year ending March 2022 LRT0102
13.2% of all light rail and tram passenger journeys in England were concessionary, an increase of 0.4 percentage points since last year. This varies by system from 5.2% on DLR to 37.7% on Sheffield Supertram.
Concessionary travel on light rail and trams represents a relatively small proportion of passenger journeys when compared with local bus passenger journeys in England (31%).
Vehicle mileage
Vehicle mileage can be used as an indicator of the level of service provision by operators. Chart 6 shows that in England, vehicle mileage increased by 7.7% to 20.9 million miles in the year ending March 2022 compared to the year ending March 2021 (19.4 million miles). This followed a slight fall in vehicle mileage the year before, as a result of the pandemic.
Chart 6: Light rail and tram passenger journeys and vehicle miles index: England, annually from year ending March 2012 - LRT0101/LRT0106
Vehicle mileage decreased by less than passenger journeys during the pandemic as the Government provided funding support to the sector to ensure the continued running of services. This was initially to provide sufficient service provision for NHS staff and key workers, and subsequently to ensure that service levels were maintained while passenger numbers remained lower due to social distancing and home working requirements.
In London, vehicle mileage was 5.2 million miles in the year ending March 2021, up 2.0% from the previous year’s figure of 5.1 million miles.
In England outside London, vehicle mileage increased by 9.8% from 14.3 million miles in the year ending March 2021 to 15.7 million miles in the year ending March 2022. Chart 7 shows that in the year ending March 2022, Manchester Metrolink had the highest vehicle mileage of all systems, at 7.8 million miles. Blackpool Tramway had the lowest at 0.6 million. As well as the impact of the pandemic, there are other factors that can affect these figures for individual systems, such as planned engineering works or technical issues such as those seen on West Midlands Metro during the year ending March 2022.
Chart 7: Light rail and tram vehicle mileage (millions) by system: England, year ending March 2022 LRT0106
Infrastructure
Between the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022, route miles and number of stops stayed the same on all systems in England. The number of tram vehicles operated by Manchester Metrolink increased by 17 to 137, and the number operated by West Midlands Metro increased by 8 to 29.
Table 2: System summary (year ending March 2022)
| Length of system (miles) | Number of stops | Number of tram vehicles | Average journey length (miles) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 219 | 410 | 536 | 4.2 |
| London systems | 41 | 84 | 184 | 3.2 |
| Docklands Light Railway | 24 | 45 | 149 | 3.2 |
| London Trams | 17 | 39 | 35 | 3.2 |
| England outside London systems | 178 | 326 | 352 | 5.3 |
| Nottingham Express Transit | 20 | 50 | 37 | 4.1 |
| West Midlands Metro | 14 | 28 | 29 | 6.7 |
| Sheffield Supertram | 21 | 50 | 32 | 4.0 |
| Tyne and Wear Metro | 48 | 60 | 89 | 5.4 |
| Manchester Metrolink | 64 | 99 | 137 | 6.5 |
| Blackpool Tramway | 11 | 39 | 28 | 2.7 |
Revenue
Chart 8 shows that light rail and tram passenger revenue increased by 91.8% (in actual prices) from the previous year to £254.1 million in the year ending March 2022. This reflects the increased passenger numbers over this period. Concessionary revenue decreased by 2.9% (in actual prices) from the previous year to £30.4 million.
Chart 8: Light rail and tram total and concessionary passenger revenue index: England, annually from year ending March 2012, at actual prices LRT0301/LRT0302
Unlike commercial revenue, which decreased significantly during the pandemic, most local authorities chose to maintain concessionary reimbursement at pre-pandemic levels in the year ending March 2021, with some maintaining these into the financial year ending March 2022. These payments, in conjunction with funding support from DfT, worked together to help ensure the continued operation of light rail services across the country.
Light rail and tram passenger behaviour
Previous versions of this release have included data from the National Travel Survey (NTS), which gathers data on personal travel behaviour by households in England and can be used to analyse users of light rail and tram systems in areas where such systems exist. This analysis was based on combining several years of NTS data to provide a sufficient sample size to analyse trends.
Data collection for the NTS was disrupted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with lower response rates and substantial missing data around the start of the pandemic. Travel behaviours and the profile of survey respondents also changed significantly during the pandemic, meaning the findings will be less comparable to previous years. For these reasons, we are not providing updated analysis of passenger behaviour in relation to light rail and tram systems.
For analysis of personal travel behaviour on light rail and tram systems, please see last year’s release.
Passenger satisfaction
Transport Focus have not conducted any surveys of passenger experience on light rail and tram systems since the last release of this publication. The previous release contains details of passenger satisfaction surveys conducted between 2018 and 2019.
Light rail and tram safety
The Office of Rail and Road publish information on passenger injuries on trams, metros and other non-Network Rail networks in Great Britain. In the year ending March 2021 (the latest available data), there were 11 injuries, compared to 30 injuries in the year ending March 2020. This is the lowest number of injuries since the first data published in the year ending March 2006, reflective of the reduced travel due to COVID-19 restrictions in the year ending March 2021.
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Background information
These statistics were designated as National Statistics in February 2013.
National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release are available.
Further information on data quality, including the methods used to compile these statistics, users and background information about the systems covered can be found in the quality report.
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