No platformed

What effect have strikes had on rail travel?

– In the first quarter of this year, some 389m journeys were made on the rail network, up on 2022 but only 88% of the number of journeys made in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic

– Ticket revenue was £2.2bn, 70% of the same period in 2019

– LNER (111% of 2019 levels), East Midlands (101%), Hull Trains (122%) and Grand Central (111%) all managed to increase passenger numbers on 2019; all other franchises saw a decline

– Passenger numbers fell the most on the Transpennine service (60%), which was recently relieved of its franchise

Source: Office of Rail and Road 

Crowded house

Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list was published, minus several expected peers. How many members of the House of Lords are there?

– As of September last year, there were 798 members, 755 of whom were entitled to attend proceedings

– 24 were Church of England bishops and 86 are ‘excepted hereditary’ peers

– 645 of them were life peers

– 29% were women compared with 35% in the House of Commons

– The oldest was 97 and the youngest 36, with an average age of 71

– 18 members retired last year

– The Lords has grown in recent years, but is still a long way short of the size it reached in 1999, before the removal of most hereditary peers, when membership peaked at more than 1,300

Source: House of Lords Library

Best laid plans

The planning system is often blamed for a shortage of housing. What happens to planning applications?

– In the first quarter of 2023, 96,000 applications were made (down 13% on the same period last year)

– 87,200 applications were decided in the same period

– 75,000 (86%) were granted

– Applications were most likely to be granted in the north-east (93%) and least likely in the east of England (84%)

– 91% of applications in National Parks were granted

– 89% of applications were decided within 13 weeks, or other period agreed with the applicant

– Only 8,400 applications involved new residential units (although many will have involved more than one unit)

Source: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities