27.10.15
National rail performance crashes below 90% in period 7
National performance in period 7 has crashed after improving steadily over the past two months, with the PPM figure slumping to 89.9%.
The Network Rail published figure, which covers operator performance for 20 September to 17 October, is down from the 91.2% recorded during the previous period.
The figure is also marginally below last year’s PPM figure during the same period, which stood at 90.1%.
Govia Thameslink Railway’s (GTR’s) performance slumped, dipping to 82.9% after beginning to recover in the last period. Similarly to period 5, it was again the worst-performing operator, with a PPM figure only below that of period 4 – during which its performance was down at 82.5%.
This was considerably driven by its sub-operator, Gatwick Express – the only route with a performance below 80%.
Its other sub-operators – Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink – also had performance figures below 90%, with Southern slumping to 83% in both its main line and metro routes. This negates signs in period 6 that the franchise was starting to recuperate after taking in Southern, Gatwick Express and some Southeastern services in late July, when it became the largest single UK franchise.
This is also the first time the performance of Great Western Railway (GWR), the new branding for First Great Western, was recorded: the figure recording started on the same day as the operator launched its revamped brand featuring upgraded timetables and fleet livery to drive improvement.
But it may have been a slow start for GWR as it recorded a PPM figure of 88.7% in period 7 – marginally above last year’s performance, but below the 90.1% recorded in period 6 before its rebranding.
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On the other end of the scale, Chiltern Railways almost bagged c2c’s longstanding position as the best-performing operator, with a figure just 0.5 percentage points behind at 96.3%. This is also owed to the fact that c2c’s performance was noticeable down on the previous period’s 98.5%, and was also below its performance of 97% in period 7 last year.
Merseyrail and TfL Rail were right behind at 96% and 95.2% respectively – although this was slightly lower than TfL’s performance in period 6.
Meanwhile, Northern Rail, ScotRail and Southeastern maintained a steady performance compared to the same period last year, with figures only very marginally above or below 2014. The two first operators also recorded less cancellations and lateness compared to last year, but ScotRail’s delay figure could not be measured because it was taken over from First ScotRail in April 2015.
And once again, Virgin Trains East Coast recorded the highest amount (6.6%) of cancellations and lateness, even above that of the previous period (5.6%). First Hull Trains followed right behind it at 6.1%, considerably worse than last period’s 4.7% – although this is an improvement from its performance in period 5, during which it recorded a particularly negative cancellation figure of 8.6%.
These cancellations are recorded if a train is cancelled at origin or en route, if its originating station is changed, if it fails to make a scheduled stop or if it is more than 30 minutes late.
These delays are usually mostly attributable to Network Rail, which was once again responsible for 58% of train delays of three minutes or more due to infrastructure, operations or external issues.