The Economic Contribution of UK Rail, published 2021
1. INTRODUCTION This report sets out the ‘economic footprint’ of the UK rail sector in 2019, including that of the train operators and rail infrastructure providers (‘railway system’), suppliers of assets, goods, and services to railway systems at home and overseas (‘rail supply sector’), and on-station retailers catering for railway passengers. It follows on from a similar report, The Economic Contribution of UK Rail 2018, concerned with the economic footprint in 2016. The results relate to calendar year 2019, rather than 2020. Although a range of ‘headline’ data is now available for the later year, there is insufficient data of a robust nature at the level of industrial detail required for this study. This also means that the analysis relates to the latest year in which the economy, and its industries, were operating at ‘normal’ capacity levels, uninterrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This report is therefore a snapshot of rail’s economic footprint before the pandemic. While it is not yet clear how passenger demand will change as restrictions are lifted, travel did return to prior trends in the wake of previous shocks, such as the 2009 financial crisis and Spanish flu. We also note that the Government’s Williams-Shapps’ Plan for Rail, and Transport Decarbonisation Plan, both support rail growth (subject to delivering appropriate cost efficiencies), and recognise the need for policies to incentivise rail travel given its important role in decarbonising the transport sector. Innovate UK, the official UK innovation agency, similarly assumes rail growth in its Transport Vision 2050.3 This report therefore considers the impact of this planned future growth on the economy. The measures of economic impact covered include output or sales, the sector’s gross value added or GVA, the employment headcount, and the value of taxes paid, as explained in the box below. As also explained there, the effects captured include not only the ‘direct’ contribution of these businesses, but also the support provided to other parts of the UK economy as a result of their spending on assets, goods, services, and wages ─ the so-called ‘indirect’ (supply chain) and ‘induced’ (wage-funded expenditure) contributions. For the railway system and rail supply sector, there is also an in-depth analysis of labour productivity (GVA per job), and average wages, to show how these industries contribute to the development of a high-wage, high-skill economy, both nationally and in every part of the UK. However, the study does not attempt to quantify all of the many important benefits of the railways to the UK economy and society, including net user benefits, benefits to the environment, and benefits to the nation’s long-term economic growth potential. As in the previous report published in 2018, the results are presented on a UKwide, regional, and UK parliamentary constituency basis. The main results tables can be found in Appendix 2 of this report, but a more detailed set of tables will also be made available, covering estimates on an industry-by-region basis, and key results for every constituency.
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https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1008833/IUK050821-4293_Innovate_Future_Transport_A4Portrait.pdf
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