Trainline’s half-year ticket sales jumped higher than expected amid a combination of increased demand for digital tickets and fewer UK rail strikes.
The FTSE 250 online retailer raked in just over £3bn in sales in the six months ended 31 August, up 14 per cent year on year.
Revenue soared 17 per cent to £229m.
Both figures tracked ahead of Trainline’s prior forecast for growth for the financial year 2025 of between 8 per cent to 12 per cent and 7 per cent to 11 per cent, respectively.
“As Europe’s number one rail app, our strong performance shows how our relentless focus on innovation is helping more customers to choose digital ticketing,” Jody Ford, chief executive of Trainline, said.
“Competition between rail carriers is growing across Europe and as the aggregator of choice we deliver the value and convenience customers want. This is most clearly demonstrated in Spain, where we have tripled net ticket sales in the last two years, with over 1m customers transacting in the last 12 months alone.”
In the UK, net ticket sales hit £2bn, 15 per cent higher year-on-year, driven by more people switching to digital tickets and the “reduced impact from strike action versus the prior year,” Trainline said.
International sales also rose six per cent to £583m, with the Spanish and Italian markets seeing the fastest growth.
Given the strength of performance, Trainline expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to exceed a prior forecast of between 2.4 and 2.5 per cent of net ticket sales.
The outlook will quell any investor concern that wide-reaching rail reforms under the new government could impact the bottom line. Talk of a rival state-owned ticket operator had sent shares plummeting at points last year but no plans have been unveiled by Labour so far.
Trainline shares are down 4.34 per cent this year to date, but have risen around 20 per cent over the last 12 months.