11.08.17
ORR reveals first-ever ‘to the minute’ performance across TOCs
The ORR has today released performance statistics for period 4 measuring train punctuality ‘to the minute’ for the first time ever at an operator level.
Trains for every operator are recorded as ‘on time’ when the lateness of the service at the recorded station is less than one minute, or within 59 seconds of the scheduled arrival time.
The transport regulator found that overall, the percentage of trains recorded as ‘on time’ for period 4 of 2017-18 was 62.5% across the country, whilst 2.4% of trains were cancelled in the period.
Hull Trains had the lowest number of trains arriving on time, at 42.6%, while c2c topped the list as usual, running 80.6% of its trains on time.
Overall, 10 TOCs had a higher percentage of on-time services compared to the national level, and nine improved their on-time performance compared to 2016-17.
Unsurprisingly, figures for Govia Thameslink Railway showed a continued poor performance from Network Rail’s own performance statistics for period 3. This can partially be attributed to the fact it runs services on Great Northern, Southeastern and the strike ridden Southern.
It had the highest number of cancelled trains in the period by some way, at almost 6% – the next operator with the most cancelled trains being Hull trains at 3%.
Merseyrail had the best record, with only 1.1% of services cancelled, followed closely by Chiltern Railways at 1.2% and East Midlands trains at 1.3%.
The ORR’s statistics also revealed that while there had been 11 severely disrupted days in the year up to 22 July – meaning at least 20% of planned services were cancelled nationally – this number dropped to zero when accounting strictly for period 4.
But when considering severe disruption at a sub-operator level, GTR once again took the cake, racking up almost 70 severely interrupted days in the past year. It was by far the worst-performing TOC, with Greater Anglia trailing far behind at 25 days of intense disruption.
On the other hand, c2c was the only operator to not run a single severely delayed day in the same period. Merseyrail and South West Trains also had good services, with only one day of severe disruption each.
A spokesperson for Govia Thameslink Railway told RTM: "Clearly, industrial action has had a significant impact for GTR but service levels are improving as these figures reveal.
"Our network is the most congested in the UK and passenger numbers have doubled in places in as little as 12 years.
"This is why we have to modernise working practices and provide new trains, infrastructure and services to give passengers the service levels they deserve."
Top Image: Johnny Green PA Images
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