If you're planning a car-free escape from Gloucestershire for the Bank Holiday weekend, there's a strong change you'll reach for a "carrier brand" app on your phone to sort the details – the generic choice being Trainline.

And that habit is clearly catching on: latest annual financials from FTSE250's Trainline show the business has steamed its way through the £5bn barrier for ticket sales as activity in UK rail travel bounces firmly back from the Pandemic – and the business's interests in European surge.

As music to the ears of investors, the annual financial report to the end of February headlines a more than doubling of profits and includes:

● Net ticket sales up 22% YoY to £5.3bn, driving growth in revenue of 21% to £397m.

● Adjusted EBITDA up 42% to £122m, 2.3% of net ticket sales; operating profit up 101% to £56m, driven by volume growth and operating leverage.

● Basic earnings per share of 7.3p up 61%; adjusted basic earnings per share of 12.3p, up 59%.

● Operating free cashflow up from £8m to £91m.

As pointers for what's got Trainline so firmly on track, the firm says there has been a strong growth in mobile app downloads, this being now Europe's most downloaded rail app.

A trend to shift the UK rail market to digital tickets is also bearing fruit: Eticket penetration of industry ticket sales increased to 47% from 43% in FY2023, the firm said, while on-the-day bookings have grown to 66% of UK Consumer transactions.

Trainline's share of the commuter travel segment has also increasing to 23% from 10% pre-COVID.

But beyond its sphere with the UK rail network, the boat has also come in for the service: international consumer net ticket sales surpassed £1bn, driven by European markets with most widespread carrier competition. Spain and Italy showed a combind growth of 43%, with Spanish domestic ticket sales more than doubling now in two consecutive years.

Consumer awareness for Trainline has also doubled in Spain and Italy in the wake of brand awareness campaigns launched in the last two years.

Jody Ford, CEO, told investors: "New entrant carrier competition is revolutionising rail in Europe as more customers benefit from greater choice, lower prices and the opportunity to choose greener travel. We are becoming the aggregator of choice in the UK and internationally and are delivering strong growth, particularly in those markets liberalising fastest such as Spain.

Mr Ford, who stepped up as boss in February 2021, added: "With four carrier brands competing across its high-speed rail network, we have doubled domestic ticket sales in Spain for the second year running and significantly grown our market share on the top routes. With new entrant carrier competition set to ramp up in Italy, France and the UK in the coming years, the opportunity grows to create a golden age of rail travel."

In line with its stated capital allocation framework, Trainline announced a new £75m programme to commence upon completion of its existing programme. As of the end of April, £38m of shares had been repurchased under an existing £50m programme.

● Originally the Trainline.com when it was established by the Virgin Group in 1997, Stagecoach subsequently purchased a 49% share. In February 2004, the brand merged with rival Qjump and Stagecoach departed, Virgin then having an 84% share of the business with National Express taking up the remainder. Trainline floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.