Passenger train performance dips for April-June quarter, reports ORR

Punctuality of passenger trains fell slightly between April and June this year (Q1, 2017-18), compared with the corresponding three-month period in 2016.

The Office of Rail and Road’s latest Public Performance Measure (PPM) statistics, released on September 21, reveal that nationally the PPM Moving Annual Average (MMA) fell by 0.5 percentage points (pp) to 88%.

London and South East operations slipped by 1pp to 85.9%, while the Regional and Scotland sector recorded a marginal increase of 0.2pp to 91.2%. Performance in the Long-Distance sector was stable at 87.5%.

The proportion of trains cancelled or significantly late (CaSL) rose by 0.3pp nationally to 3.6%, by 0.5pp in London and the South East to 4.4%, and by 0.1pp for Regional and Scotland to 2.3%. Long-distance operators recorded a 0.1pp fall in CaSL to 4.7%.

Nationally, the first quarter of 2017-18 revealed a 1.5pp improvement in the PPM to 90.7%, compared with Q1 2016-17. CaSL also improved, with the number of incidents falling by 0.8pp to 3%.

A series of factors were blamed for falls in punctuality and reliability at a number of operators. c2c’s PPM of 95.4% was the lowest for any Q1 since 2008-09, with traincrewcaused failures rising by 112% year on year. Chiltern Railways, meanwhile, recorded its lowest Q1 PPM figure (92.6%) since 2003-04. This was largely blamed on fleetcaused failures, which rose by 63% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.

With punctuality at 88%, Great Western Railway’s London and South East services were the lowest since 2008-09. Here, Network Railcaused PPM failures have risen by 32% year on year.

London Midland’s London and South East services suffered a 3pp year-on-year reduction in punctuality to 85.2% for Q1 201718. Signal-related failures are said to have risen by 55% in the quarter for this operator. Contrasting this is the highest PPM level for Southeastern (92.4%) since 2013-14, with infrastructure failures decreasing by 37% year-on-year.

Freight performance is also included in the ORR’s figures. The Freight Delivery Metric, which measures the percentage of freight trains which arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time, stood at 95% for Q1 2017-18, down by 0.1pp compared with the corresponding period in 2016-17. However, the MAA was up by the same amount, to 94.3%.