VIRGIN AND MERSEYRAIL AMONGST THE BEST AS MORE TRAIN SERVICES THAN EVER RUN ON TIME: Merseyrail train_2

Tuesday 7 Sep 2010

VIRGIN AND MERSEYRAIL AMONGST THE BEST AS MORE TRAIN SERVICES THAN EVER RUN ON TIME

Region & Route:

Britain’s railway saw record punctuality in August with 94.2% of trains running on time and yet again, Virgin was the most improved operator. Compared to the same period last year their performance went up 3.4% to 93%.

In the national table, Merseyrail came second at 97.7%, narrowly beaten by train operator c2c, who recorded 98.8% – another new record.

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.

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: "August has been an excellent month for delivering a high–quality, punctual service to the millions of passengers and freight users who rely on train services every day."

In all, 10 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains seeing the biggest improvement. The rest saw marginal movements in performance with only three operators seeing significant movement (more than three percentage points).

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

2)      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

3)      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 

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

Period 5 of 2010/11 - 25 July to 21 August 2010

Franchise

Punctuality P5

2010

Punctuality P5

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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