Trainline PLC on Thursday raised its annual earnings outlook after a strong first half performance.
The rail ticketing platform said revenue in the half-year ended August 31 climbed 16% to £229 million from £197 million.
Net ticket sales amounted to £3.00 billion, a rise of 13% on-year from £2.65 billion.
UK ticket sales rose 15% on-year to £1.97 billion from £1.71 billion.
This reflected more people switching to digital tickets, with industry eticket penetration growing to 51% of ticket sales in he first half of financial 2025, up from 46% a year ago. It also reflected a reduced impact from strike action versus the prior year.
International Consumer ticket sales increased 4% to £583 million from £558 million.
Spain and Italy grew fastest with combined net ticket sales up 23% year-on-year.
France and Germany were down 3% on-year, as expected reflecting Trainline’s decision last year to pause brand marketing in France, as well as some disruption arising from the summer Olympics.
Trainline Solutions ticket sales firmed 19% to £449 million from £378 million.
‘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. 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 one million customers transacting in the last 12 months alone,’ Chief Executive Officer Jody Ford said.
In May, the firm forecast full-year net ticket sales growth between 8% and 12% and a revenue rise between 7% and 11%.
It predicted adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation of between 2.4% and 2.5% of net ticket sales.
Now, Trainline expects net ticket sales and revenue to be at the top end of the forecast, and the adjusted Ebitda to exceed it.
In response, shares in Trainline rose 11% to 334.20 pence each in London on Thursday.
Trainline expects to publish results for the half-year to August 31 on November 7.
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