How much do UK train companies make?

Total rail industry income in 2020-21 was £20.7 billion, a 2.4% increase from 2019-20. This consisted of £16.9 billion from government funding, £2.5 billion from passengers (£1.8 billion of fares and £0.6 billion of other train operator income), and £1.3 billion from other sources.



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Train companies at the heart of the long-running rail dispute have made hundreds of millions of pounds in profits since the Government put them on new contracts when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, a union claims.

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We're a public sector company that operates as a regulated monopoly
  • Network grants. 70% - Network grants from the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland.
  • Track Charges. 25% - 11 per cent of our income comes from fixed track access charges to operators, leaving 14 percent coming...
  • Property income.


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According to the statistics portal Statista, Union Pacific of the USA is worth a massive $75.4 billion, making it comfortably the biggest rail company in the world.

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In 2019, passenger operators made on average around 38.14 euros per train-kilometer in France, the leading country in the region for passenger operator revenue streams per train-kilometer. The country was followed by Luxembourg and Belgium, at around 29 and 28 euros, respectively.

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Why are UK trains so expensive? One of the main reasons the price of train tickets keeps rising is the privatisation of rail networks, with every private company striving to make a profit.

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Today, nearly 20 per cent of all European passenger journeys take place in the UK. This also makes the network the fastest growing in Europe. Rail passenger growth has outperformed population and employment growth and is double the rate of growth of GDP.

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New figures show that the UK's rail system: Contributes over £36bn annually to the UK economy (a greater economic impact than the food, drink and tobacco manufacturing and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries); Provides around 600,000 jobs (employing more people than the entire workforce of Birmingham);

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Who owns and runs the UK's railways? Britain's rail network was first nationalised by Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1948 and then privatised again under Sir John Major's Conservatives in 1993. Network Rail, which runs railway infrastructure in England, Scotland, and Wales, is publicly owned.

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Union Pacific has long had a reputation among investors as the best-run U.S. railroad. Over the past decade, the company has invested more than $35 billion to modernize and maintain its 32,200 miles of track.

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Main railway companies in the United Kingdom (UK) : Virgin Trains, Northern, ScotRail, Eurostar.

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America's freight railroads are almost entirely privately owned and operated. Unlike trucks and barges, freight railroads operate overwhelmingly on infrastructure they own, build, maintain and pay for themselves.

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The British Royal Train is used to convey senior members of the British royal family and associated staff of the Royal Household around the railway network of Great Britain. It is owned, maintained and operated by DB Cargo UK.

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Seven UK railways are operated or partly-operated by Dutch state railway Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), including Merseyrail, Scotrail and the West Midlands Railway. Seven railways are operated fully or partly by French state railway SNCF, including Transport for Wales and the Thameslink.

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If China is the largest exporter of rail technology in the world, its neighbour Japan is certainly the most technologically advanced manufacturer on the market. Having launched the first class of bullet trains in 1964, the country has continuously updated its models according to the latest technological advancements.

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Throughout Amtrak's history, the company has never turned a profitable year, but seemed to be demonstrating greater economic viability before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Flynn earned a total of $759,205.40 that year, with a bonus worth $284,205 – or nearly 60% of his salary. Stephen Gardner, who served as Amtrak's president in 2021, notched the second-highest income at the company, pulling in $735,159 with a base salary of $473,800, the data show.

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