Monday 17 May 2010

RAIL PUNCTUALITY IN WALES IS AMONGST BRITAIN’S BEST

Region & Route:
| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders
| Wales & Western

The rail services in Wales are among the most punctual in the country, according to the latest train performance data released by Network Rail today.

Arriva Trains Wales continues to outperform target, with an annual average of 94.9% of trains arriving on time by the end of April - the first month of the operating year.    

Chris Rayner, director of operations and customer services, said: "Train punctuality continues to go from strength to strength and today’s records mark a positive start for the year ahead.  Delivering an even better service for our customers and for passengers remains our primary focus as high levels of investment to beat bottlenecks and overcrowding continue."

Arriva Trains Wales Customer Services Director, Ian Bullock commented: “We welcome the results of Network Rail’s train performance records which demonstrate that our efforts to improve our service delivery to our customers are being recognised. However we are not complacent and we will continue with our programme of continuous improvement."

Across the country, 94.0% of services arrived on time between 1 April – 1 May.  This compares to 93.6% in same period, period 1, last year.   In all, 11 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve, or stay at record high levels, compared to the same period last year.

Period 1 of 2010/11 - 01 April to 1 May 2010

Franchise

Punctuality P1

2010/11

Moving Annual Average (MAA)

Arriva Trains Wales

96.5%

94.9%

c2c Rail

97.8%

96.7%

Chiltern

95.8%

95.3%

CrossCountry

87.8%

89.8%

East Coast

86.4%

87.0%

East Midlands Trains

94.9%

92.5%

First Capital Connect

92.9%

89.4%

First Great Western

93.4%

92.4%

First Scotrail

94.0%

90.6%

First Transpennine Express

94.5%

92.1%

London Midland

92.6%

90.1%

London Overground

96.0%

93.3%

Merseyrail

95.9%

96.2%

Northern Rail

93.5%

91.5%

National Express East Anglia

92.7%

91.1%

Southeastern

92.9%

89.3%

Southern

94.7%

90.8%

South West Trains

96.8%

93.0%

Virgin Trains

89.1%

85.3%

 

Note: The data contained within this report is for initial indications only and is subject to change in subsequent publications

Notes to editors

1.  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, Eurostar and Wrexham and Shropshire are not included in the National PPM.

2. National train punctuality is measured for all trains across the whole of each, 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 - 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

Contact information

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Journalists
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MediaRelationsWestern@networkrail.co.uk

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