Railway Industry Association: Industry Survey 2020

Survey of rail business leaders on the impact of Covid-19 on their organisation and their outlook for the next year behalf of the RIA.

• Railway decision makers are almost split down the middle on the prospects for the rail supply industry in the coming year, with 35% saying the industry is likely to grow and 36% saying its likely to contract, with 25% saying it will stay the same;
• When it comes to their own businesses, leaders are more likely to be optimistic about growth prospects, with half (51%) saying their business is likely to grow in the coming year. However, this has decreased from 59% who said this last year. One in five (21%) say their business is likely to contract in 2021.
• On the impact of Coronavirus, three in five (61%) railway business leaders say the Coronavirus pandemic has worsened their business’ outlook for the coming year. Amongst those who expect their business to contract, 74% said the pandemic had worsened their outlook.
• Two in five (40%) railway business leaders say they are not confident the Government will promote the railway industry as one of the UK’s key economic sectors when negotiating future trade deals, while 28% are confident it will.

Date Published: 04/11/2020

Categories: Business | Infrastructure | Public and communities | UK

Client: Railway Industry Association (RIA)

Methodology

Savanta ComRes interviewed 257 railway business leaders in the UK rail supply chain between 17^th September and 9^th October 2020. Previous research was conducted between 10^th July and 12^th August 2019, among 174 railway business leaders. Savanta ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.