Tuesday 7 Sep 2010
RECORD-BREAKING AUGUST FOR c2c AS 99% OF TRAINS RUN ON TIME
- Region & Route:
- | Eastern: Anglia
- | Eastern
Britain’s railway saw record punctuality in August with 94.2% of trains running on time. One train operator, c2c, recorded almost 99% of services on time – the best monthly performance ever recorded on Britain’s railway.
The operator, which runs services between London Fenchurch Street, Southend and Shoeburyness, saw 98.8% of services arrive at their destination on time in August. The region’s other main train operator, National Express East Anglia, recorded 93.4% of services on time. The main causes of delay to National Express East Anglia services were a serious lineside fire at Romford (believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette) and a fatality at Enfield Lock.
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.
Andrew Munden, Network Rail route director for Anglia, said: “August has been an excellent month for delivering a high quality punctual service to the million of passengers and freight users who rely on train services every day across the country.
“The record-breaking performance of c2c, with an unprecedented 99% of services arriving on time, is testament to the hard work of both Network Rail and c2c staff who work as a team to deliver the country’s most punctual rail service for passengers. Despite these excellent results we are not complacent and will continue to look for new ways to drive performance up further still.”
Julian Drury, managing director of c2c, said: “I am delighted that c2c continues to set the standards for the rail industry in achieving another record for UK train punctuality. I am proud of everyone at c2c for their record breaking efforts and for the support of our colleagues at Network Rail in helping to consistently achieve such high levels of train service performance."
Notes to editors
- In all, 10 of the 19 train 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)
- Some words about performance of East Coast over the month highlighting the major incidents
- 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 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
- 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
Period 5 of 2010/11 - 25 July to 21 August 2010
Franchise
Punctuality P4
2010
Punctuality P4
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%
92.9%
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
93.2%
91.8%
90.7%
London Overground
96.8%
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
94.7%
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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