Rail Running Costs/Train fuel consumption

[Jozhua]

Hi all!
We hear a lot about the fact certain franchises are struggling to make money and with fares higher than ever and (somewhat reducing) government subsidies, what are some of the costs involved in running a train?

Obviously the trains themselves are rather expensive compared to say buses or other road vehicles as they are a tad more specialist!

Does anyone know what train MPG figures are like and the costs associated with diesel/electric power?

Would be interesting to see how rail compares in regards to cost to other forms of transport. I'd guess rail can move more people with less staff, but is more maintenance heavy?

 

[hwl]

Hi all!
We hear a lot about the fact certain franchises are struggling to make money and with fares higher than ever and (somewhat reducing) government subsidies, what are some of the costs involved in running a train?

Obviously the trains themselves are rather expensive compared to say buses or other road vehicles as they are a tad more specialist!

Does anyone know what train MPG figures are like and the costs associated with diesel/electric power?

Would be interesting to see how rail compares in regards to cost to other forms of transport. I'd guess rail can move more people with less staff, but is more maintenance heavy?

This oldish ORR report is a good start:

https://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/4933/toc-benchmarking-report-2012.pdf

There are newer RDG etc stuff but not as comprehensive explanation wise.

The above report uses Net i.e. excluding NR grant allocation costs so best to download the latest ORR data from the portal and do an updated average Gross cost / pax and average revenue /pax comparison which gives you the real % subsidy and is an eye opener. (DfT subsidise TOCs indirectly by paying a big chunk of NR costs, the access charges don't actually cover costs but are just contribution.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-running-the-rail-network

 

[Jozhua]

This oldish ORR report is a good start:

https://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/4933/toc-benchmarking-report-2012.pdf

There are newer RDG etc stuff but not as comprehensive explanation wise.

The above report uses Net i.e. excluding NR grant allocation costs so best to download the latest ORR data from the portal and do an updated average Gross cost / pax and average revenue /pax comparison which gives you the real % subsidy and is an eye opener. (DfT subsidise TOCs indirectly by paying a big chunk of NR costs, the access charges don't actually cover costs but are just contribution.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-running-the-rail-network

Thanks a lot!

Was interesting to see the average vehicle cost per KM, which was £2.20, could probably work out from that profit at different levels of loading.