Trainline (LSE:TRN) has been one of my favourite companies in the FTSE 250 for quite some time now.
As Europe’s most downloaded rail app, with 27m customers, I’ve always maintained my belief that the company stands to gain the most from digitisation of train tickets in Europe.
We can see this materialise every time the company posts its annual revenue:
| Financial year | Revenue |
| 2022 | £189m |
| 2023 | £327m |
| 2024 | £397m |
| 2025 | £442m |
| 2026 | £453m |
However, over the last five years, the FTSE 250 stock has seen its share price fall by 47.5%.
In fact, even after reporting a solid set of results for FY26 earlier today (6 May), the company’s shares fell by 3.7%.
This has made the shares look pretty cheap. So, is this a buying opportunity for investors to consider?
FY26 results
Looking at Trainline’s full-year results for the 12 months to February 2026, there was a lot to like:
- Net ticket sales were up by 7% year on year to £6.3bn.
- Revenue was up 2% to £453m.
- Adjusted EBITDA was up 11% to £177m.
- Operating profit increased by 43% to £122m.
There’s no doubt that 2% revenue growth represents a slowdown. And it’s not so great to see that the firm isn’t benefiting fully from the 7% growth in net ticket sales.
However, what I do really like about these results is that they show that the firm is becoming more efficient. That’s because adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) grew by 11% and operating profit an even more impressive 43%. Therefore, the firm’s operating margin is definitely expanding.
But there are some other details in the annual results that make me understand why shares fell.
Guidance is weak
While Trainline’s growth and expanding margins are certainly causes for optimism, the FTSE 250 company’s guidance is probably not.
The firm is expecting similar net ticket sales of £6.2bn to £6.45bn for FY27. Furthermore, it expects revenue to be £440m to £455m. At the midpoint of £447.5m in revenue, this actually represents a decline in turnover.
This may be concerning for investors, especially as it indicates that competition may be taking market share away from the company.
For example, Uber launched its national rail and coach booking services onto its platform in late 2023. As Uber caters to consumers by providing many travel options and not just rail, it might be more appealing to customers.
But shares are still attractively valued
Even though competition might be a concern for Trainline, there’s no denying its shares are still valued nicely.
The company’s forward price-to-earnings ratio of 10.1 is on the cheaper end.
With this in mind, there are still plenty of promising aspects of the business. For example, revenue from international consumers continues growing strongly, rising by 12% in FY26.
While this isn’t as significant as the UK consumer is to the business right now, it may offset some of the falling revenue resulting from UK sales over time.
Therefore, while it’s valued cheaply, I think investors should consider adding some Trainline shares to their portfolio.
