TRAIN PERFORMANCE BOUNCES BACK

Friday 18 Feb 2011

TRAIN PERFORMANCE BOUNCES BACK

Region & Route:: National

Train punctuality has bounced back to over 90% on time following the difficult winter conditions of December.

The latest train performance results reported that 90.3% of trains arrived on time compared with 89.5% for the same period last year. A result achieved despite the lingering effects of the severe weather on both the infrastructure and some rolling stock.

Period 11 (9 January to 5 February) saw train performance recover from the recent bout of severe winter weather to the normal high levels.

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: "It is good to see train performance bounce back and start to recover to the high levels passengers, and our customers, have come to expect.

"While this is good news, our focus remains on bringing all train operators up to the level of the very best performers and we are re-focussing our efforts, in partnership with the train operators, to improve the level of service experienced on the East Coast Main Line."

Eight of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year. London Overground was the most punctual operator during the period with 96.4% of trains on time. Eight operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):

	*P11 2010/11*	*P11 2009/10*	*% point change*
Virgin Trains	86.9%	77.9%	9.0
East Coast	80.9%	89.7%	-8.8
London Overground	96.4%	88.5%	7.9
First Capital Connect	90.0%	85.5%	4.5
Southern	89.8%	86.1%	3.7
Southeastern	87.6%	84.1%	3.5
First Scotrail	86.8%	90.0%	-3.2
Merseyrail	94.7%	97.8%	-3.1

Notes to editors

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 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 11 of 2010/11 - 9 January to 5 February 2011

Franchise

Punctuality P11

2010/11

Punctuality P11

2009/10

Moving Annual Average (MAA)

Arriva Trains Wales

94.0%

95.2%

94.1%

c2c Rail

95.0%

95.7%

95.0%

Chiltern

92.3%

94.2%

94.1%

Crosscountry

88.7%

90.2%

88.0%

East Coast

80.9%

89.7%

83.7%

East Midlands Trains

91.9%

93.5%

92.0%

First Capital Connect

90.0%

85.5%

89.1%

First Great Western

89.2%

91.9%

90.5%

First Scotrail

86.8%

90.0%

First Transpennine Express

93.7%

92.2%

91.0%

London Midland

88.5%

89.3%

90.0%

London Overground

96.4%

88.5%

94.7%

Merseyrail

94.7%

97.8%

95.0%

National Express East Anglia

88.4%

89.4%

90.2%

Northern Rail

91.1%

91.0%

90.8%

Southeastern

87.6%

84.1%

88.2%

Southern

89.8%

86.1%

89.8%

South West Trains

92.8%

90.8%

93.8%

Virgin Trains

86.9%

77.9%

86.2%

National

90.3%

89.5%

90.8%

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 and Eurostar 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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