The new CEO of Trainline says he is excited by Trainline’s huge potential and its purpose.
The comments from Jody Ford come despite a tough 12 months in which group net ticket sales decreased to £783 million, equivalent to 21 per cent of the prior year.
The independent rail and coach travel ticket selling platform has revealed its trading performance for the financial year 2021 (March 1st to February 28th.
The findings include:
- UK Consumer net ticket sales of £473 million were 23 per cent of the prior year, peaking between the first and second lockdowns at 46 per cent.
- UK Trainline for Business net ticket sales of £75 million was 6 per cent of the prior year.
- The International business showed the strongest recovery with net ticket sales recover to £235 million, or 48 per cent of the same period in the prior year.
- The decline in Group net ticket sales resulted in Group revenue decreasing to £67 million, 26 per cent of revenue in the prior year.
Jody Ford, CEO of Trainline, said: “The last 12 months have clearly been challenging for the industry. However, we are confident we will see more customers booking rail travel online and a continue 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 driving the significant long-term growth opportunity for this business.”
Photo credit: Trainline
