In the year to February 2021, Trainline sold GBP 783M of tickets. The year before, it had sold GBP 3.7bn.
That collapse is one of the most vivid moments in the company's life, but it is not where the story starts. Trainline began in 1997, set up by Virgin Group, with online sales opening in 1999 under contract with Capgemini. Stagecoach later bought a 49% stake.
A year later it bought Captain Train in France and became Trainline EU.
The next move was blunt. In February 2004 Trainline merged with its main rival, Qjump. Stagecoach sold out, leaving Virgin with 86% and National Express with 14%. The idea survived the merger: one site that could sell tickets from every train company.
Then the owners changed. Exponent Private Equity bought in July 2006. In 2007 it acquired Advanced Smartcard Technologies, including Ecebs, which was sold in 2012. In January 2015 KKR bought it, scrapping a planned IPO, and the business shed the name thetrainline.com for plain Trainline. A year later it bought Captain Train in France and became Trainline EU.
In June 2019 the company listed in London at 350p a share, valuing it at nearly GBP 2bn on the first day.
What almost nobody predicted was the speed of the fall. COVID-19 emptied the stations, and the company recorded an operating loss of about GBP 100M. In 2021 Jody Ford took over as chief executive from Clare Gilmartin, who had led it through the listing.
The recovery was real, and it was built on the same basic promise: one screen, every operator. For the year to 28 February 2026, revenue was GBP 452.7M, operating income GBP 122.4M and net income GBP 79.8M, with 986 staff. The company now aggregates tickets from more than 270 operators in over 40 countries, and in April 2025 bought Spanish ticketing company Trenes.com.
New trouble has not gone away. In June 2025 its AI assistant was criticised for giving wrong information in beta, and in August 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into alleged drip pricing.
Behind the app sits the platform Platform One, which also supports booking and distribution for other rail and coach operators, so the company sells technology as well as tickets. Trainline shows that persistence can matter more than inspiration. It took four owners, a pandemic and a name change to become the default way to buy a train ticket.