Wednesday 7 Oct 2009
BRITAIN'S TRAINS MAINTAIN HIGH LEVELS OF PUNCTUALITY
- Region & Route:
- National
The past month has seen Britain's train service maintain its record high levels of punctuality with the release of the latest performance results which saw 93.6% of trains arrive on time.
In its regular monthly performance update, Network Rail announced that period six (23 August to 19 September) proved to be one of the highest on record.
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer service, said: “Passengers have seen good train punctuality over the past six months and our challenge is to maintain comparatively high levels in the autumn months ahead."
In all 11 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year. Four operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):
| P6 2009 | P6 2008 | % point change | |
| First Transpennine Express | 95.8% | 89.8% | +6 |
| Virgin Trains | 89.0% | 83.4% | +5.6 |
| Arriva Trains Wales | 95.8% | 90.9% | +4.9 |
| London Midland | 90.7% | 86.6% | +4.1 |
Notes to editors
1) Arrived on time - the measure of train punctuality also know as PPM (public performance measure) means trains arriving at their destinations within five minutes for commuter services and within 10 for long distance services. This measure of punctuality is commonly used throughout Europe
2) National train punctuality is measured for all trains across every day, 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
3) 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
4) Network Rail and the train operators run more trains across Great Britain than are run in most European countries - 50% 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
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