Punctuality getting worse - not better - for capital’s commuters

London TravelWatch is critical of train punctuality in and around the capital, claiming in its National Performance Report that just 54.1% of trains in London and the South East arrived on time in the past three months of 2016.

For Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the figure was lower - 42.1%, with more than 10% of its trains cancelled or significantly late. The report also highlighted signalling failures across South West Trains’ network along with broken rails between Surbiton and London Waterloo and rolling stock failures as the main cause for its 4.1 percentage point fall in Public Performance Measure to 83.7%.

LTW policy committee chairman John Stewart said: “Our report shows that passengers across London have had a particularly raw deal during the period covered, and that an already unacceptable performance has been getting worse rather than better.

“Once again, GTR is the worst performing operator - the disaggregated figures show that this operator’s poor performance covers all services operated under the franchise and not just those operated by Southern who have been affected by industrial action.

“Weary and exasperated GTR passengers have had enough. The onus is on GTR, working with Network Rail and the Department for Transport, to turn this situation around as a matter of urgency.

“Some of the other train companies’ performance has been disappointing, too - passengers using Southeastern and South West Trains also experienced a drop in performance levels at the end of 2016.”