The figures are a surprise, but some things can be explained.
For Swindon specifically, there is the lack of off-peak return fares, and of nearby stations.
For those averages per journey; what is a journey? The
ORR» have successfully hidden any explanation of terms and methods where I can't find it. However, I did find this footnote: " A journey is based on travel from an origin station to a destination station. A train journey may include one or more changes of train, and one journey is generated for each train used." From that I conclude that a return trip is two journeys, as I would expect. Other than that I'm none the wiser.
As to the average revenue (i.e. income from all sources) per passenger km, it does look out of line with fares. OK, seasons are cheaper, but only make up about 30% of income. That will vary with
TOC▸ , but national averages are dominated by the big mixed city-based ones so
GWR▸ and
SWT▸ ought to be close to average.
I already have some figures by TOC for 2012/3, when the average was 13.3 p/km (so make a small allowance for that). It is striking that the big mixed franchises have figures very close to the national average, and for
FGW▸ and SWT it gives:
| All averages in p/passenger km | FGW | SWT |
| Passenger income | 13.3 | 14.6 |
| Franchise receipts from government | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Other | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Franchised train operator income | 14.7 | 15.7 |
| Staff costs | 4.0 | 3.4 |
| Fuel costs (diesel) | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| Fuel costs (traction electricity paid to NR» ) | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Rolling stock charges | 1.2 | 1.9 |
| Franchise payments to government | 2.8 | 4.9 |
| Corporation tax | -0.1 | 0.1 |
| Other (including Network Rail charges) | 5.7 | 4.5 |
| Franchised train operator expenditure | 14.8 | 15.4 |
| Franchised train operator inc less exp | -0.2 | 0.3 |
| Network Rail | | |
| Franchised train operator access charges | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Net government grant | 6.6 | 4.8 |
| Other | 1.1 | 1.6 |
| Network Rail income | 9.8 | 8.3 |
| Network Rail expenditure | 8.1 | 7.9 |
| Network Rail income less expenditure | 1.7 | 0.3 |
| Total industry income | 24.5 | 23.9 |
| Total industry expenditure | 23.0 | 23.3 |
| Industry income less expenditure | 1.5 | 0.6 |
| Less net government funding | -3.7 | 0.1 |
| Industry income less expenditure excl. government funding | -2.2 | 0.7 |
| Dividends paid by train operator | 0.0 | 0.3 |
The Network Rail figures are split between TOCs, so those shown here only relate to FGW.
I still can't see how that fits with the fares charged - it would need more details about the breakdown of revenue between ticket types to explain that, I think.
