North east rail journeys continue to rise

The total number of journeys for the North East has increased steadily since 2002-03 and reached 14.8 million in 2013-14. Passenger journeys fell between 1999-00 and 2002-03 which was driven by a 15.9% fall in journeys within the region over that period. The fall in demand was largely due to significant engineering work between Newcastle and Sunderland as the line was upgraded for the Tyne & Wear Metro extension to Sunderland, completed in 2002-03.

Compared to 2012-13, there has been an increase of 3.7% in total journeys, mainly brought about by the rise in journeys of 4.5% to/from the North East. In terms of growth rates for journeys to/from a region in the last year, this is the highest for any region in Great Britain. The regions that account for the majority of journeys, Scotland, London and Yorkshire and the Humber, all increased between 5% and 6%. This could be attributed to competition on those routes with a number of operators running services between the North East and those regions.

Journeys within the North East increased by 2.4% since 2012-13. Tyne & Wear is the origin or destination point for almost 40% of journeys as it covers the two largest cities, Newcastle and Sunderland, and it saw an increase of 0.7%, its lowest growth rate since 2006-07. There were high growth rates of 6.2% for Durham and 4.0% for Northumberland.

Souce : Department of Transport report