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Notes to editors

• Delays attributable to Network Rail (this includes external factors such as fatalities, which made up around 20% of these delays) accounted for 60% of delays nationally during the period.
• For East Coast the major impacts on performance were all infrastructure related which accounted for 49% of delays, for which Network Rail apologises, with external factors (trespass, weather etc) accounting for a further 21%. East Coast caused just 18% of delays to its passengers during the period.
• 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, 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.