Train performance worsens, but is better than pre-COVID

Passenger train performance declined in January-March, but punctuality was still better than in 2019 (pre-pandemic), according to Office of Rail and Road statistics.

Of the 1.64 million passenger trains planned during the quarter, 72.4% arrived on time, 89.1% arrived within five to ten minutes after the scheduled time, and 3.9% of trains were cancelled.

Only one operator - Greater Anglia - improved its punctuality in January-March 2022, and the reliability (cancellations) of most operators worsened in this quarter.

Overall, cancellations were only slightly behind OctoberDecember 2019, which were at a five-year high.

More than half (51.2%) of cancellations were attributed to train operators, with around a third of those the fault of track or signalling issues.

The figures do not explain why operators cancelled trains, although many cited increased staff sickness levels due to COVID during the period.

The ORR stats also show that in the 12 months to March 31 2022, 73% of trains arrived on time and 89% within five to ten minutes.

This was down 6.7 percentage points (pp) compared with the previous 12-month period, but up 8.2pp compared with the year ending March 31 2020.

During the year, there were 6.69 million trains planned in Britain, up 9.6% compared with the previous year ending March 2021, but down 14.1% compared with the year ending March 2020.

Compared with the corresponding quarter in 2021 (January-March), Transport for Wales Rail suffered the greatest slump in punctuality performance (down by 19.4pp), with only 63.1% of trains on time and only slightly ahead of the bottomplaced government-controlled train operators - Avanti West Coast (51%), TransPennine Express (60%) and CrossCountry (60.4%).