Monday 6 Sep 2010
MORE TRAIN SERVICES THAN EVER RUN ON TIME IN AUGUST
- Region & Route:
- National
Britain’s railway saw record punctuality in August 2010 with 94.2% of trains running on time. One train operator, c2c, recorded almost 99% of services on time – another new record.
The Fenchurch Street operator saw train punctuality hit almost 99% in August with 98.8% of services on time, with Merseyrail at 97.7% and London Overground at 96.8%.
The figures were released today in Network Rail's regular monthly report on train performance. During the period from 25 July to 21 August, 94.2% of services arrived on time. This compares to 94.0% in same period last year.
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: “August has been an excellent 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 compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains seeing the biggest improvement (up to 93.0% from 89.6% last year). The rest saw marginal movements in performance with only three operators seeing significant movement (more than three percentage points):
| P5 2010 | P5 2009 | % point change | |
| East Coast | 86.2% | 91.2% | -5 |
| First Transpennine Express | 91.9% | 95.9% | -4 |
| Virgin Trains | 93.0% | 89.6% | 3.4 |
Mr Gisby concluded: "Performance for services using the East Coast main line is presently running below the very high standards we set ourselves. Action plans have been put in place, in conjunction with the train operators, and we expect performance to improve over the coming months.”
Notes to editors
1) The top three incidents effecting East Coast services during August were caused by either third parties of infrastructure faults. A major line-side fire in a neighbour's property near Newark station caused severe delays to East Coast services on Thursday 19th August. A track fault was discovered near Retford on the 12th causing delays and a Hull Trains' service broke down on Saturday 14th casuing knock-on delays to East Coast services
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 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
4) 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
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 5 of 2010/11 - 25 July to 21 August 2010
Franchise
Punctuality P5
2010
Punctuality P5
2009
Moving Annual Average (MAA)
Arriva Trains Wales
95.7%
95.1%
95.1%
c2c Rail
98.8%
96.8%
96.6%
Chiltern
96.4%
97.0%
95.1%
Crosscountry
90.4%
91.0%
89.8%
East Coast
86.2%
91.2%
86.1%
East Midlands Trains
93.9%
92.8%
93.0%
First Capital Connect
93.4%
93.2%
89.3%
First Great Western
91.1%
92.3%
91.9%
First Scotrail
95.0%
94.8%
91.2%
First Transpennine Express
91.9%
95.9%
92.0%
London Midland
93.3%
91.8%
90.7%
London Overground
96.9%
94.9%
94.0%
Merseyrail
97.7%
97.3%
96.3%
National Express East Anglia
93.4%
93.7%
90.8%
Northern Rail
93.1%
93.8%
91.5%
Southeastern
94.9%
95.2%
89.2%
Southern
94.5%
93.5%
90.7%
South West Trains
94.9%
95.2%
93.2%
Virgin Trains
93.0%
89.6%
86.7%
National
94.2%
94.0%
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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