Train travel for work – the complete 2025 guide for workforce mobility
Everything organisations need to plan smarter and keep mobile teams moving
Train travel for work has a rhythm most people know well: early alarms, crowded platforms, a quick coffee, and a quiet hope that today isn’t the day signalling faults or engineering works derail the plan. For the typical business traveller, a routine site visit can mean multiple connections, shifting schedules and a constant eye on the departure board.
Even so, rail remains how mobile teams get things done. The rail network recorded 1.7 billion passenger journeys in the year ending 2024, and more than 451 million between April and June 2025 – slightly above the same pre-pandemic quarter, showing just how many workers still rely on trains to reach jobs, sites and clients.
Reliability, however, has not kept pace with demand. Only around 67% of recorded station stops arrived on time in 2024, and cancellations remain higher than before the pandemic. For businesses, that translates into missed appointments, added overtime, extra hotel nights and a steady stream of project delays. For travellers, it often means long days, disrupted routines and a growing sense of fatigue.
It’s why more organisations are tightening how they plan rail journeys, standardising which train travel planner tools teams should use and adopting approaches that genuinely support dispersed, on-the-move workers. The right business travel platform now plays a central role in keeping people moving, staying ahead of train travel disruption and managing the real cost of keeping a mobile workforce on the road.
Why train travel for work is growing in popularity
For many organisations, rail isn’t just a practical way to get from A to B – it’s how dispersed teams keep operations moving. A single day might involve an engineer travelling between maintenance jobs, a field technician covering several regions or an area manager visiting stores across multiple towns. When your workforce depends on reaching specific locations at specific times, train travel for work becomes a core part of delivering projects on schedule.
Why workers continue to rely on trains
Rail offers several advantages that make it particularly suited to workforce travel:
- More predictable journey times than road travel, especially on busy commuter routes
- Productive travel windows, giving staff time to catch up on emails, reporting or documentation
- Efficient multi-stop travel, allowing workers to visit multiple sites in one day
- Lower fatigue, since trains offer rest between physically demanding tasks
For teams covering long distances or tight schedules, those extra pockets of productivity and downtime genuinely matter.
What has changed
Reliance on rail has increased, but so have the challenges that come with it. Organisations are dealing with:
- Rising fares, especially for late bookings
- More frequent train travel disruption, with cancellations and delays affecting day plans
- Inconsistent booking behaviour, leading to higher costs and gaps in duty of care
- Scattered receipts and ticket formats, which create friction for finance
- Limited visibility of who is travelling, when and at what cost
The traditional approach (letting employees book however they prefer) now creates real problems for cost control, scheduling and safety.
Why organisations are rethinking their approach
To manage rail travel more effectively, many businesses are standardising the full process: how bookings are made, which train travel planner tools staff use and how policies are enforced. The focus is shifting towards platforms that support workforce mobility at scale, rather than corporate office travel alone.
Modern travel management now prioritises:
- Clear fare visibility, including split-ticket options
- Centralised approvals that keep spending aligned with policy
- Real-time disruption updates to minimise project delays
- Duty of care tracking so managers know where people are
- Consolidated monthly invoicing to simplify accounting
- Custom policies that control cost without slowing teams down
In an environment where delays can derail entire project days, businesses are recognising that the process behind rail travel is just as important as the journey itself.
Looking for comfortable accommodation and simple expense management tailored specifically for the mobile workforce?
Discover how Roomex can streamline your travel needs, offering hassle-free booking and expense solutions designed to keep your team focused on the job. Try Roomex today and experience the difference in efficiency and convenience for your mobile workforce.
Understanding train travel disruption and why it derails more than journeys
If you manage a mobile workforce, you already know that train travel disruption isn’t only an inconvenience. A delayed or cancelled service quickly becomes a domino effect: missed site slots, rescheduled shifts, lost labour hours, overtime, extra hotel nights and frustrated teams trying to piece their day back together. And while disruption has always existed, the scale and frequency in recent years has changed the way organisations need to plan.
What disruption actually looks like now
According to the Office of Rail and Road, only 67% of recorded station stops arrived on time in 2024, and cancellations remain above pre-pandemic levels. This isn’t a one-off issue, it’s a pattern. Disruption tends to fall into a few categories:
- Operational delays – train faults, crew shortages, dispatch issues
- Infrastructure problems – signalling faults, track work, speed restrictions
- Weather-related disruption – flooding, high winds, extreme heat
- Congestion – busy commuter routes, knock-on delays from other services
- Short-notice timetable changes – often linked to engineering works
When several of these collide, even straightforward journeys become unpredictable.
How disruption impacts your business
For organisations with workers travelling daily or weekly, disruption creates very real operational and financial challenges:
- Missed appointments and project delays
- Unplanned overtime, especially for workers travelling long distances
- Additional hotel nights when staff can’t get home
- Rearranged labour and rota changes mid-day
- Lost productivity when workers spend hours waiting at stations
- Duty of care concerns, particularly for lone or late-night travellers
Even a single delay can turn into hundreds of pounds in additional cost once labour hours, travel changes and accommodation are factored in.
Why businesses need earlier warning and better visibility
Most teams don’t struggle because they’re unaware disruption exists – they struggle because they hear about it too late. Without a central source of truth, travellers rely on a mix of:
- Operator apps
- Station announcements
- Social media updates
- Word-of-mouth alerts from colleagues
This fragmented approach makes it difficult for managers to make decisions quickly and for employees to adjust plans without losing hours on the road.
The role of a structured travel system
A modern business travel platform gives organisations wider visibility across:
- Where employees are travelling
- Which routes are high-risk for delays
- Who needs support when disruption hits
- What the financial impact is across projects or regions
When train travel disruption becomes predictable (and manageable) businesses can adjust planning, shift start times, route choices and backup options with far less chaos.
Delay Repay – what workforce travellers need to know
Most employees have heard the term Delay Repay, but very few know how it actually works – or that it applies just as much to business journeys as it does to personal ones. For mobile teams who spend hours each week on trains, knowing their rights can put real money back in the business and reduce the frustration of a day derailed by cancellations.
What Delay Repay covers
Delay Repay is the national scheme used by train operators across the UK to compensate passengers when services run late or are cancelled. The key points are simple:
- You can claim if a delay causes you to arrive 15 or 30 minutes late, depending on the operator.
- It applies whether the delay happens at the start, middle or end of the journey.
- It applies even if you take a different service to complete the journey.
- Claims must usually be submitted within 28 days.
- Compensation is paid by the train operator, not the booking platform.
When employees can claim
Employees are eligible for Delay Repay when:
- A train arrives later than the operator’s threshold (usually 15 or 30 minutes)
- A cancellation forces them onto a later service
- A missed connection leads to a late arrival
- They complete the journey, even if it involves multiple operators
When they shouldn’t claim
Delay Repay only applies to completed journeys.
If an employee decides not to travel because disruption makes the trip impossible or unnecessary, they should request a refund for unused travel rather than Delay Repay.
What train companies participate
The scheme is widely adopted across the network, including:
Avanti West Coast, c2c, Caledonian Sleeper, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Gatwick Express, Grand Central, LNER, London Northwestern Railway, Merseyrail, Northern, ScotRail, Southeastern, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, Thameslink, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales, West Midlands Railway and Stansted Express.
What businesses often miss
The main issue isn’t the rules – it’s time.
Employees don’t keep receipts.
They forget arrival times.
They don’t know which operator caused the delay.
As a result, thousands of pounds go unclaimed each year, even though the compensation is straightforward and entirely legitimate.
Why it matters for employers
- For workforce-heavy sectors, delays aren’t anomalies – they’re embedded into weekly planning. Helping staff understand Delay Repay is not just fairness; it’s cost recovery. When delays happen repeatedly on certain routes, the claims add up quickly.
The real cost of train travel for finance teams
When delays rise (as they did by 54% in 2025) this becomes a real financial issue.
Over a full year of trips, unclaimed compensation adds up to:
- Thousands lost in missed cash payments
- Higher overall trip costs
- Lower confidence from travellers
- More time spent resolving issues on the road
This is exactly why many companies now lean on travel specialists who handle compensation automatically. The less your team needs to chase airlines, upload documents or fill out forms, the more predictable your travel spend becomes.
How Roomex helps companies recover missed flight compensation and support travellers during delays
Train travel looks simple on the surface – a few tickets a week, mostly short-distance, nothing dramatic. But as finance teams know, simplicity disappears the moment bookings become decentralised or disruption becomes routine.
Where the hidden costs appear
- Late bookings
Last-minute fares are far more expensive. Multiply that by dozens of employees and reactive booking becomes a noticeable budget drain. - Missed appointments
A delay isn’t solely a delay. It’s a technician unable to complete a first job, which pushes the second, which creates overtime. Labour is always the real cost centre. - Overnights caused by disruption
A train cancellation at 7pm can easily turn into another hotel stay, another meal and another missed morning appointment. - Fragmented receipts
Paper tickets, QR codes, email confirmations – a finance team trying to reconcile this manually loses hours each week. - Duty-of-care exposure
Not knowing where workers are when disruption hits creates risk, cost and (in the worst cases) liability.
Why this is important
Workforce mobility has risen sharply. Teams are travelling more because businesses are operating across wider regions. At the same time, disruption has become an everyday reality.
Finance teams need tools that provide:
- Real-time visibility of spend
- Predictable monthly billing
- Controls to prevent premium fares
- Clear audit trails for every ticket
- Accurate reporting for operational planning
A modern approach to rail travel isn’t about buying cheaper tickets – it’s about reducing the friction around everything that happens before and after the journey.
Best practice for managing workforce rail travel
Running workforce rail travel smoothly is all about giving employees a structure that helps them travel without stress and gives managers visibility without micromanagement.
Best practices that make a real difference
1. Standardise how journeys are planned
Choose one train travel planner for the entire organisation so everyone uses the same route, timing and fare information.
2. Encourage earlier booking windows
Work with teams to set expectations (e.g., book 7–14 days ahead when possible) without punishing unavoidable last-minute trips.
3. Set clear, realistic travel policies
Define what’s allowed – peak, off-peak, advance, flexible fares – but make sure the rules reflect real working patterns, not ideal-world scenarios.
4. Prepare for disruption
Create a simple internal process for:
- What employees should do if a train is delayed
- Who they should contact
- How rebooking should happen
- How disruption should be reported
5. Support lone workers and late-night travellers
Put safety first. If an employee arrives late into an unfamiliar area, ensure they have guidance for onward travel or accommodation.
6. Centralise payments
Avoid personal card spend where possible. Centralised billing eliminates expense delays and improves the employee experience.
7. Track travel behaviour
Patterns matter. If the same route disrupts workers repeatedly, planning shifts – or even staff deployment – may need adjusting.
How Roomex supports rail travel
Roomex is built for companies with mobile teams, not desk-based travellers making occasional trips. Rail is a natural fit for the industries we support, and our platform is designed around the realities of workers who spend most of their week on the move.
What RoomexRail brings to the table
Split-ticket savings
Our platform automatically identifies split-ticket routes, helping businesses secure the most cost-effective fare – with average savings of £24 per journey.
Clear, consolidated journey information
Employees see every route option in one place, eliminating the confusion of juggling multiple apps and operator websites.
Delegated approvals
When a manager is unavailable, approval responsibility can be reassigned instantly, keeping jobs on schedule and preventing booking bottlenecks.
Custom travel policies
Set fare caps, restrict ticket types or create different rules for different teams. The system enforces compliance without slowing anyone down.
Pay on account
No more employees covering fares on personal cards. Roomex consolidates travel into one monthly invoice, making reconciliation significantly easier.
Duty of care – built in
Live traveller information means managers can see where teams are, who has arrived safely and who might need help during disruption.
One platform for rail + hotel
For multi-day or disruption-affected trips, Roomex links rail travel with accommodation, giving businesses complete visibility over the entire cost of the journey.
Workforce rail travel checklist
A quick, skimmable summary for HR, finance and travel managers building or refining their rail strategy.
✔ Planning
- Use one train travel planner across the organisation
- Encourage booking at least 7 days ahead where possible
- Pre-approve common routes and fare types
✔ During the journey
- Ensure staff know what to do during delays
- Provide clear contacts for urgent rebooking
- Track lone or late-night travellers for safety
✔ After the journey
- Make Delay Repay claims part of standard practice
- Centralise all receipts and journey records
- Feed route reliability issues back into scheduling teams
✔ Management & control
- Set sensible, realistic travel policies
- Use a business travel platform that supports workforce mobility
- Consolidate rail and hotel costs into unified reporting
- Use approval workflows to avoid last-minute premium fares
A smoother way to keep your workforce moving
Train travel has always played a major part in workforce mobility, but the stakes are higher now. Delays are more frequent, fares fluctuate more widely and projects are spread across larger geographic areas. Businesses can’t afford to treat rail bookings as individual, disconnected journeys anymore; they’re part of a much bigger operational picture.
When travel is handled well, teams arrive calmer, on time and ready to work. When it isn’t, days unravel quickly – and the financial impact multiplies. That’s why organisations are moving towards systems that bring everything together: planning, booking, approvals, payment, duty of care and post-travel reporting.
Roomex takes that complexity and turns it into something manageable. With split-ticket savings, smarter booking workflows, real-time traveller visibility and consolidated invoicing, the platform gives businesses the structure they need without adding friction for employees. Workers get a smoother experience. Managers get clearer oversight. Finance gets cleaner data and fewer surprises.
Rail travel will always come with variables, but the way it’s managed doesn’t have to. With the right setup behind it, train travel becomes predictable, efficient and, most importantly, less stressful for the people who rely on it every day.
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