Almost 93% of services on Britain’s railway ran on time during the last reporting month – mid September to mid October - matching last year's 'best ever' record for train performance during the seventh period of the year.
The figures were released today in Network Rail's regular monthly report on train performance. During the period from 19 September to 16 October (period 7), 92.8% of services arrived on time with c2c being the most punctual. This is identical to the same period last year, the best ever October since records began well over a decade ago.
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: "October has been a good month for delivering a high-quality, punctual service to the millions of passengers and freight users who rely on train services every day."
In all, 10 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve or stay the same compared to the same period last year, with First Scotrail seeing the biggest improvement (up to 93.6% from 91.6% last year). The rest saw marginal movements in performance with just two operators seeing significant movement (more than three percentage points):
| P7 2010 | P7 2009 | % point change |
| Merseyrail | 93.9% | 97.2% | -3.3 |
| Southeastern | 87.8% | 90.9% | -3.1 |
Notes to editors
- Merseyrail saw performance dip slightly during the period but it still remains at very high levels. Top incidents during the month include cable theft and lineside equipment failures
- Southeastern also saw performance dip slightly during the period. The most notable incidents were trespass incidents at Faversham and Canterbury East on 14 October, signalling faults at Lewisham on 28 September and Ashford on 8 October, a train fire at Knockholt on 5 October and a temporary speed restriction between Lee and Hither Green, which has now been lifted
- 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
- National train punctuality is measured for all trains across the whole network, 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
- These figures represent provisional data for the period and individual operators' performance data may vary slightly from the full period performance report that Network Rail publishes on its website every month
- 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 7 of 2010/11 - 19 September to 16 October 2010
Franchise | Punctuality P7 2010 | Punctuality P7 2009 | Moving Annual Average (MAA) |
Arriva Trains Wales | 95.5% | 96.4% | 95.0% |
c2c Rail | 98.1% | 96.9% | 96.7% |
Chiltern | 95.7% | 97.1% | 95.1% |
Crosscountry | 92.8% | 94.0% | 89.8% |
East Coast | 89.2% | 91.5% | 85.7% |
East Midlands Trains | 94.3% | 93.1% | 93.1% |
First Capital Connect | 92.3% | 90.4% | 89.3% |
First Great Western | 91.7% | 92.9% | 91.6% |
First Scotrail | 93.6% | 91.6% | 91.4% |
First Transpennine Express | 94.2% | 94.2% | 91.8% |
London Midland | 91.8% | 91.5% | 90.9% |
London Overground | 94.0% | 93.0% | 94.2% |
Merseyrail | 93.9% | 97.2% | 96.0% |
National Express East Anglia | 94.5% | 94.1% | 90.9% |
Northern Rail | 92.8% | 91.5% | 91.6% |
Southeastern | 87.8% | 90.9% | 88.9% |
Southern | 91.4% | 91.5% | 90.6% |
South West Trains | 95.4% | 95.3% | 93.2% |
Virgin Trains | 91.5% | 93.3% | 86.8% |
| |
| |
National | 92.8% | 92.8% | 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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