Your train will be delayed again: rail punctuality falls to worst in a decade

Poor weather and staff shortages blamed as more than one in 10 trains keeps passengers waiting

THE proportion of trains that run late is at its highest in a decade, figures from the rail watchdog show.

More than one in 10 trains (10.9 per cent) failed to arrive at their destination on time in the 12 months to the end of the March.

The performance is the worst since 2006-07 when 11.9 per cent of trains ran late, the Office of Rail and Road regulator said.

As well as infrastructure and operational delays, such as signal failures and overrunning engineering works, problems were caused by external factors such as severe weather, vandalism, cable theft and trespass.

Trains only fail the industry’s punc- tuality measure if they are at least 10 minutes late for long-distance services and five minutes late for commuter trains.

Separate figures show that 3.1 per cent of trains were cancelled or at least 30 minutes late over the same period – the highest level since 2004-05.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which is responsible for Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express services, had the worst punctuality with only 81.5 per cent of trains on time. Ongoing engineering works at London Bridge and signal failures were major issues.

A spokesman for GTR said the rebuilding work at London Bridge was making delays “up to four times more difficult to recover from”.

He added: “It’s like driving on the M25 with one lane closed – any problem causes significant and widespread disruption.” GTR had also struggled with a lack of drivers but was recruiting new staff, he said.

Virgin Trains East Coast recorded that 14.8 per cent of its trains were late while for Caledonian Sleeper trains the figure was 14 per cent. In London and South East, severe weather was responsible for 4,100 failures – more than treble the number recorded in the previous year. Delays due to issues with train crew increased by 23.6 per cent.

Lilian Greenwood, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said: “It’s clear that punctuality on the rail network is in free fall under the Tories. Passengers are paying ever higher prices to travel on increasingly unreliable and overcrowded carriages. Ministers must stop making excuses and act.”

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators and Network Rail, said: “We are investing billions of pounds in improving the reliability of tracks, signals and trains to make good on our promise more often. Our challenge is that the railway is used more intensively than almost any other in Europe, and the number of trains run has risen by 28 per cent in 17 years, while the size of the network has hardly changed.”