The latest quarterly passenger usage data has been issued by ORR covering Jan-March 2026

Per table 5 GWR ran 0.9% less trains than previous year
Per table 6 GWR ran 3% less vehicle km than previous year
GWR is at bottom (worst position by Operator) in both tables

So not only did it shrink in a year, trains had on average 2% less carriages.

Some of the 0.9% cut could be put down to flooding problems on Looe and Barnstaple lines, suspending services, but that doesn't explain the shortening of trains

Table 2 shows GWR had +2% more passengers, so that means on average had about 3% passenger increase per train (and on basis didn't add seats, that means 3% harder to find a seat)

Table 3 gives passenger km, and that was 0.3% up
Clearly this is a complete mismatch to the 3% cut in vehicle km

So basically (on average) trying to squeeze about 2-3 extra people per carriage. 

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/j1mdc31j/passenger-rail-usage-jan-mar-2026.pdf

Thought it worth a topic, because clearly cutting the trains whilst increasing passengers is controversial

 

It *is* (worth a topic) but we need to be very careful in how we read the stats.  Is there a stat reporting the distance or time the average passenger spends on a train?  Especially over the years.  If journey length drops, then more people can use the same seat ... I'm not suggesting it's happened.

I could also point out that shortening quieter (mid evening trains and late night trains on Monday to Wednesday) may be an efficiency saving - plenty of space.  "At home" I welcome 3 carriages rather than 2 on daytime trains - but on the trains between 19:00 and 21:00 2 is adequate and 3 - when it happens - unnecessary.