On-time arrivals improve in recast ORR punctuality statistics

The number of trains arriving at their stations on time increased to 64.7% in the year ending June 30, according to the latest Office of Rail and Road (ORR) statistics.

The release (published on September 19) marks a new way the statistics are presented, with new measures reporting the reliability and punctuality to the minute of trains arriving at every recorded station stop.

The 64.7% figure for the year ending Q1 2019-20 represents a 2.5 percentage point (pp) increase on the previous year.

98.4% of trains arrived at their station stops within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time, and 83.9% within three minutes. On the previously used Public Performance Measure, 87% of trains reached their final stop within ten minutes of the schedule.

In terms of the Moving Annual Average measure (the proportion of trains on time in the past 12 months), c2c was the most punctual operator with a rating of 83.2%, followed by Heathrow Express on 82% and TfL Rail on 76.7%.

Govia Thameslink Railway was the most improved operator, with on-time arrivals increasing by 9pp to 70.9%. Great Western Railway’s punctuality improved by 6.7pp to 63.5% and Merseyrail’s by 5.2pp to 69.9%. The least punctual operators were Hull Trains (down 1pp to 36.8%), TransPennine Express (down 4.6pp to 38.7%) and London North Eastern Railway (down 1.5pp to 41%).

In another change to the way the ORR treats punctuality and reliability statistics, the number of trains cancelled replaces the previous Cancellations and Significant Lateness measure.

The percentage of trains cancelled in the year to June 30 was 2.8% on a MAA basis, a fall of 0.1pp against the year before.

The highest number of cancellations (50.7%) were the responsibility of train operators themselves, with 27.8% attributed to Network Rail infrastructure and

network management. External infrastructure factors such as bad weather or trespass accounted for 17.1% of cancellations, with external train operator issues such as passengers being taken ill on trains covering the remaining 4.3%.

TransPennine Express and Hull Trains (both 5.5%) cancelled most trains over the period. There was one severely disrupted day in the first quarter of 2019-20, eight fewer than in the same period in 2018-19.

In terms of delay minutes, GWR led the way with a 14pp improvement in Q1 punctuality itself (to 245,597 minutes) credited to reductions in delays caused by timetable planning, points failures and fleet delays.

Explaining the changes to the punctuality measures, ORR Head of Information and Analysis Lyndsey Melbourne said: “We are publishing these new measures of punctuality and reliability to aid transparency of train performance and to help the industry focus on exactly where problems are arising, and therefore direct their efforts on finding a solution - so passengers will benefit as solutions are found more quickly and more trains arrive on time.”

Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has called for a national body to collect rail fares, and for operators and infrastructure managers to have the same incentive.

On the day of publication of the ORR’s punctuality statistics, Shapps declared: “What I want to see happen is a new national body to collect all the fares themselves, and then the train operating companies incentivised so you have a much more strategic approach to the whole of the railway.”

Shapps rejected the idea of nationalisation, saying: “Not going back to the bad old days of British Rail - still having that sort of enterprise in the railways, but rather having everybody pushing in the same direction whether you’re running the tracks or the points or the trains themselves. Everybody having the same incentive.”