Media centre

Wednesday 15 Jul 2009

C2C BECOMES MOST PUNCTUAL TRAIN OPERATOR EVER (ANGLIA)

Region & Route:

| Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

Train operator c2c, which runs commuter services from London Fenchurch Street to Essex, has become Britain's most punctual operator - ever - reaching an average of 95.8% of services on time over the 12 months to 27 June 2009. c2c has beaten the previous record set by Chiltern Railways of 95.4% in December 2005.

In its third regular monthly performance update, Network Rail announced another record for the overall number of trains arriving on time¹ on Britain's railways over the past year (up to 27 June 2009) - 90.9%.

Reporting on period three of the year - 31 May to 27 June 2009 - 93.1% of services ran to time compared to 90.1% last year. This resulted in the average number of trains on time over the last 12 months reached another record high, from 90.8% at the end of period two (30 May) to 90.9% at the close of period three.

In all 15 operators saw their performance improve, compared to the same period last year. Two remained unchanged and two dropped. Seven operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):

· ------------------------- P3 2009 - P3 2008 - % point change

· First Great Western -----93.9% ----- 84.4% ------ +9.5

· National Ex East Coast 89.1% ------83.4% ------ +5.7

· Southern ------------------ 95.2% ----- 90.1% ------ +5.1

· East Midlands Trains - 91.5% ----- 87.3% ------ +4.2

· Northern Rail ------------- 92.7% ---- 89.1% ------ +3.6

· Crosscountry ------------- 91.3% ----- 87.8% ----- +3.5

· South West Trains ------ 95.3% ----- 92.0% ----- +3.3

· c2c ---------------------------96.4% ----- 94.5%

· c2c average for past 12 months = record 95.8%

Patrick Hallgate, Network Rail's Anglia route director, said: "Network Rail and train operators have worked tirelessly to boost train punctuality. Passengers and freight users are seeing the results of that hard work with more on time journeys.

"We're proud of the contribution Network Rail has made towards helping c2c become the most punctual train operator Britain has ever seen. As we continue to invest in the railway in Anglia ahead of the Olympics and beyond we will continue to work closely with the train operators to find ways to improve punctuality further still.”

This record performance was delivered with well over a million more trains per year running on the rail network today compared to the days of Railtrack and British Rail.

Only two operators saw performance dip. Chiltern recorded 95.0% for the period from 95.1% in period three last year and Virgin Trains achieved 82.3% from 84.8% last year. Virgin's performance for the period is slightly ahead of the target in our improvement plan and is ahead of its average for the proceeding 12 months.