23.12.15
Caledonian Sleeper performance crashes in period 9
It’s been a difficult few months for the Caledonian Sleeper as its performance dropped by a staggering 22.3 percentage points since the same period last year, now standing at 72.3%.
The Network Rail figure, covering 15 November to 12 December (period 9), compares to a ppm of 94.6% during the same period last year.
The national figure for all operators was 82.6%, compared to 85.8% in the same period last year.
Services were taken over by Serco from First ScotRail in March of this year. Since then, the operator’s franchise has been plagued by rolling stock failures, consistently poor performance and, just yesterday, a route-wide strike orchestrated by rail union RMT.
Other operators also reported distinctly low performances during period 9 – which, despite accounting for the harsher months of winter, are low even compared to the same time last year.
Virgin Trains West Coast, for example, saw its PPM figure drop to 71.1% compared to 82.6% last year. Virgin Trains East Coast’s ppm also slumped below 80% to 76.7%.
First TransPennine Express’s (FTPE’s) performance plummeted to 72.5% compared to 85.4% last year, following on from period 8, during which it was one of the three operators to have performance figures below 80%.
Govia Thameslink Railway was another of these three operators, and has continued to be so with a PPM figure of 73.1% this period – although this compares to 78.5% last year.
FTE’s figure for delays and cancellations also ballooned from 4.7% last year to 14.6% this year – by far the highest of all operators, alongside Virgin Trains West Coast, which deported a delay figure of 12.7%.
The third highest PPM figure was for to Virgin Trains East Coast (9.2%), which was still a significant jump from the fourth worst delay figure of 6.4% (Heathrow Express and Govia Thameslink Railway).
While most other operators reported performance figures around the 80% mark, TfL Rail continued to improve its service, with a ppm figure of 95.3% this period. The operator has enjoyed an ever-improving performance since taking over the London Liverpool Street to Shenfield metro services from Abellio Greater Anglia in May.
