The ITC has released a major new report exploring wider factors affecting the growth in passenger ra

The recession is unlikely to be the cause of the 3% reduction in urban areas in overall road vehicle traffic from 2007 to 2017 and of the larger reduction of 4% in the car component of this overall traffic. [...] 3.1.2 B ecause of the absence of spatially detailed, large-scale surveys through time of rail users, it has been necessary to assemble and combine a variety of data sources that can provide insights into the main determinants of the growth in rail travel that are external to the operations of the rail industry. [...] 3.2.4 The analysis of rail travel observed from the NTS that was presented in the various previous ‘On the Move’ reports (ITC, 2016), showed that the growth in rail travel over the past 20 years has almost entirely been due to a greater proportion of the population recording some rail travel in their diary, rather than due to rail users travelling more frequently by rail. [...] Accordingly, the analysis illustrated in the Figures below is for the major concentration of workplace jobs located in the London region which is contrasted with the trends in two other regions that were selected so as to provide a representative cross-section: the East of England and the North West. [...] 4.3 Impact of industrial sectoral change on rail growth 4.3.1 T his section combines together the findings from the previous two sections in order to quantify across England and Wales the impact on the rate of growth in rail commuters of the observed changes over time in the structure of British industry.