The Office of Rail Regulation has published statistics highlighting year-on-year levels of government financial support to the rail industry from 1985/6 to 2012/3.
Statistics show that in 2012/3 the rail industry received a £5.1bn government subsidy; this is £524 million greater than the previous year. The subsidy includes just over £1.5bn on major rail projects such as Crossrail. The data also highlights that 2012/3 is the third successive year that the government received money back from train operating companies (£420m) as part of their franchise agreement.
To view these statistics, visit ORR’s National Rail Trends (NRT) Portal at: http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk.
