From their collection titled ‘Let’s blame Sturgeon for a rail crisis’, ignoring the union leaders and the Scotrail managers, the Herald, offers the above. They also have this today:
We’ve already seen:
and:
Before the pandemic in 2019, seat occupancy on Scotrail journeys was only 23%! Seats were empty for 77% of the time.
I can’t find Scotrail data for 2021/2022 but UK rail traffic is at best at 70% of the 2019 level, meaning occupancy levels, if we kept the same level of services, would be only 18%.
Sources:
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/fit-future/detailed-assessment
UPDATE: Thanks to Legerwood:
Scotrail passenger journeys (in millions)
2018-19 97.8
2019 20 96.4
2020-21 14.4 which is just 14.9% of the passenger journeys in the previous year. A dramatic picture of the effect of lockdown and home working on railway usage.
Talking-up Scotland 
Hardly surprising, Martin Williams is paid to keep the pot boiling on doubts over current SG governance rather than reality, it’s not as if he’s a journalist without an agenda.
I’ve lived long enough to see Beeching cut off the entire entire south-west of Scotland from all contact with humanity in the age of steam, return of a Borders railway, return of a stop at Laurencekirk, none of which have any commercial justification, but have a steady flow of customers, hence satisfying a public need.
Bluntly we appear to have learned nothing from the Beeching experience, there is always someone who can cite “financial efficiency”, the Tories have been masters at this ruse for decades, and should be told politely to finally sod off.
Mass transit systems are become an essential in the modern age, it really is time the “financial efficiency” fairy was shoved where it does the most internal damage to political mechanics, this is not the blinkered thinking modern Scots or anyone else needs.
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John,
You will find all the data you could possibly want on rail operations on the Office of Rail and Road’s Data portal.
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/
Not only current data but also dato going back a number of years. Data on Finance, workforce (Scotrail workforce numbers have been rising steadily during Abellio’s time in charge), performance etc including passenger numbers both overall and for individual Train Operating Companies (TOC).
For example, Scotrail passenger journeys (in millions)
2018-19 97.8
2019 20 96.4
2020-21 14.4 which is just 14.9% of the passenger journeys in the previous year. A dramatic picture of the effect of lockdown and home working on railway usage.
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‘all the data you could possibly want ..’
Just had a brilliant business idea for us, based on evident need – deliver professional training for Unionist-inclined journalists in Scotland on the wealth of available sources of information and data, and how to analyse and use these in their work to inform the public.
Next step in the business planning process – assessment of ‘market demand’. Answer? Zero!
Ah well – more freebies for TuS will have to be it!
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Business name – Stats for Numpties?
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Never let the facts get in the way of a mendacious story!
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An excellent postscript, a real eye-opener to how badly lockdown affected public transport passenger numbers.
With the threat of industrial action hanging over the railways, it’s difficult to see passenger numbers recovering soon – This in turn means larger numbers of vehicles on the road and fuel demand increasing, the largest benefactor being the Treasury.
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