UK TRAINS HIT RECORD HIGH IN APRIL
Wednesday 12 May 2010 09:30
The number of trains arriving on time hit a new record high in April with 94% of trains across the country arriving punctually.
Almost 98% of trains on the c2c route arrived on time, pushing the operator's performance for the past year up to 96.7% - a new all time record for any British train operator and well ahead of services in continental Europe, including Switzerland.
The figures were released today in Network Rail's regular monthly report on train performance. During the period from 1 April to 1 May, 94.0% of services arrived on time. This compares to 93.6% in same period, period 1, last year.
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: "Train punctuality continues to go from strength to strength. Delivering an even better service for our customers and for passengers remains our primary focus as high levels of investment to beat bottlenecks and overcrowding continue."
In all, 11 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve, or stay at record high levels, compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains and London Midland seeing the biggest improvement in performance this month compared to the same period last year. Four of the 19 operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):
Table of operators that saw the most significant changes in performance
| | P1 2010/11 | P1 2009/10 | % point change |
| Virgin Trains | 89.1% | 80.3% | +8.8% |
| East Coast | 86.4% | 90.3% | -3.9% |
| CrossCountry | 87.8% | 91.3% | -3.5% |
| London Midland | 92.6% | 89.6% | +3% |
Notes to Editors:
1) East Coast and CrossCountry trains’ performance were both affected by external factors including a major landslip caused by heavy rain on the East Coast main line near Berwick upon Tweed which closed the railway from 31 March – 3 April. CrossCountry services were also affected by a series of cable theft incidents and a power failure at Birmingham New Street.
2) Arrived on time - the measure of train punctuality also known as PPM (public performance measure) means trains arriving at their destinations within five minutes for commuter services and within 10 minutes for long distance services. This measure of punctuality is commonly used throughout Europe
3) National train punctuality is measured for all trains across the whole of each, including cancelled services and delays caused by external factors (such as vandalism, extreme weather, suicides etc). Punctuality did not start to be recorded in this vigorous and thorough way until 1997. Before then Railtrack, and BR before it, did not measure all services and also excluded external factors and other items from their numbers
4) These figures represent provisional data for the period and individuals operators performance data may vary slightly from the full period performance report that Network Rail publishes on its website around one month after period end
5) Network Rail and the train operators run more trains across Great Britain than are run in most European countries - almost 20% more than in France and 60% more than in Italy. Great Britain's 24,000 trains per-day is also more than Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Portugal and Norway combined
Period 1 of 2010/11 - 01 April to 1 May 2010
Franchise | Punctuality P1 2010/11 | Punctuality P1 2009/10 | Moving Annual Average (MAA) |
Arriva Trains Wales | 96.5% | 95.6% | 94.9% |
c2c Rail | 97.8% | 97.0% | 96.7% |
Chiltern | 95.8% | 94.4% | 95.3% |
CrossCountry | 87.8% | 91.3% | 89.8% |
East Coast | 86.4% | 90.3% | 87.0% |
East Midlands Trains | 94.9% | 94.4% | 92.5% |
First Capital Connect | 92.9% | 92.9% | 89.4% |
First Great Western | 93.4% | 93.8% | 92.4% |
First Scotrail | 94.0% | 93.7% | 90.6% |
First Transpennine Express | 94.5% | 94.9% | 92.1% |
London Midland | 92.6% | 89.6% | 90.1% |
London Overground | 96.0% | 94.8% | 93.3% |
Merseyrail | 95.9% | 97.4% | 96.2% |
Northern Rail | 93.5% | 93.9% | 91.5% |
National Express East Anglia | 92.7% | 91.9% | 91.1% |
Southeastern | 92.9% | 94.7% | 89.3% |
Southern | 94.7% | 93.8% | 90.8% |
South West Trains | 96.8% | 95.0% | 93.0% |
Virgin Trains | 89.1% | 80.3% | 85.3% |
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National | 94.0% | 93.6% | 91.5% |
PPM
PPM is a % measure of passenger trains arriving ‘on time’ at their scheduled destination. For long distance trains ‘on time’ is within 10 minutes of the timetabled arrival time, for all others it is within 5 minutes.
Heathrow Express, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Eurostar and Wrexham and Shropshire are not included in the National PPM.
MAA
Moving annual average
Note: The data contained within this report is for initial indications only and is subject to change in subsequent publications |
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www.networkrail.co.uk