Govia Thameslink Railway’s train punctuality improves

Govia Thameslink Railway has recorded the highest Public Performance Measurement (PPM) improvement, according to the latest Network Rail figures.

For 2017-18 Period 2, which covered April 30-May 27, GTR recorded a PPM score of 85.5%, a rise of 7.4 percentage points (pp) on the 78.1% recorded in the corresponding period in 2016-17.

The second highest increase was recorded by Southeastern, up from 87.6% to 93.6%. The operators with the highest PPM score were c2c and Merseyrail (both 96.8%) and London Overground (96.7%).

The operator with the biggest decrease was Caledonian Sleeper, down 4.9 percentage points from 95.7% in 2016-17 P2 to 90.8% in the latest four-week period.

The second biggest decrease was recorded by TfL Rail, with a 4.6%pp drop from 96.9% last year to 92.3% this year. However, the operator with the lowest PPM score was Hull Trains (82.2%).

PPM is the measure of train punctuality, and relates to trains arriving at their terminating station within five minutes for commuter services and within ten minutes for long-distance services. The national PPM is 91.2%, compared with 89.8% for P2 last year.

The overall PPM Moving Annual Average (MAA, calculated over the 365 days to May 27) for 2017-18 shows Merseyrail leading the way with a 96.0% MAA, and GTR bottom (74.9%). The national MAA is 87.8%.

For the railway’s Cancellation and Significant Lateness (CaSL) figures - which record if a train is cancelled at origin, cancelled en route, the originating station is changed, it fails to make a scheduled stop at a station, or it is significantly late - GTR recorded the biggest improvement, from 7.4% in 201617 P2 to 4.3% in 2017-18 P2. The biggest rise was in CaSL failures was recorded by TfL Rail (up from 2.1% to 4.3%).

The overall MAA for CaSL figures had GTR highest (9.0%) and Heathrow Express and Merseyrail the lowest (1.7%).