One in three trains is late, figures reveal

MORE than one in three trains in the UK arrives late, data shows, as it has emerged that official punctuality statistics have been underestimating the scale of the problem.

Minute-by-minute train arrival data obtained from Network Rail’s signalling systems shows 36 per cent of trains are late, a figure which is three times higher than official numbers.

Officially, for the four weeks ending last Sunday, just 89.8 per cent of trains were on time. It confirms what passengers have suspected for years, that official figures, known as the public performance measure (PPM), are overstating the punctuality of British trains.

The PPM counts only a train’s performance at its final stop and classes trains delayed by up to 10 minutes for long-distance services, or five minutes for local services, as “on time”.

The data, collated by The Sunday Times, showed the worst operator was Hull Trains, whose services arrived late 66.7 per cent of the time.

Of the larger operators, Transpennine Express which serves Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, arrived late 52.7 per cent of the time, putting it at the bottom of the league table. Virgin West Coast also arrived late more than half the time. The only operator with a punctuality rate of more than 75 per cent was c2c.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train companies, told The Sunday Times: “We know every minute counts for our customers and that’s why Britain’s railway has adopted the most transparent measure in Europe showing punctuality to the minute at every station on a train’s journey,” it said.