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Notes to editors

The latest results published today mean National Express train operator c2c has set a new UK record for train punctuality with 97.1% of trains on time in the past year. c2c, which runs services from London Fenchurch Street to east London and south Essex, had held the previous record for annual punctuality and also holds the UK record for punctuality over a single four-week period.

East Coast services were extensively affected by the extreme weather with the route suffering from heavy delays caused by flooding and landslips between 28th June and 6th July.

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. Heathrow Express, Grand Central, Hull Trains and Eurostar are not included in the National PPM.

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 - http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/699.aspx.