The number of passenger journeys made by train last year on the UK's railways reached 1.32 billion, a 6.9% rise compared with 2009, according to new figures published by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC).
The report noted that passengers travelled a record 33.3 billion miles by train in 2010.
Growth was highest in the summer months, which saw a year-on-year rise of 8%, and year-on-year demand also grew strongly during the final quarter of the year despite two heavy bouts of snow in December.
The ATOC said the growth was partly driven by people taking advantage of cheap tickets, and a 15% rise in petrol prices over the course of 2010.
Other contributing factors were rail services improvements, including historically high punctuality, more frequent services on many routes and the roll-out of services such as Wi-Fi.
