Hundreds of train journeys are cancelled every day

THE deterioration of Britain’s rail network was laid bare yesterday with figures showing that, on average, 640 train journeys were cancelled every day over the last year.

In total, 233,606 train journeys in the UK were cancelled – an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year. This came from a total of 7,221,879 planned journeys.

The worst culprit was Britain’s largest and most beleaguered operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, which is the parent company of Thameslink, Great Northern, the Gatwick Express and Southern Rail.

Some 83,000 trains have been can- celled by Govia in the last year. Commuters to and from London that rely on Govia’s services have faced, on average, 228 cancelled trains a day – or 19 per hour.

Between its eighth period of 2015-16 timetables and the seventh period of 2016-17, Govia had 1,129,459 trains planned – the most of any operator. 7.7 per cent of these were cancelled or more than 30 minutes late.

The next largest operator is Northern, which planned 865,715 trains in the same period – of which 1.9 per cent were cancelled or were more than 30 minutes late.

Of Govia’s sub-operators, Southern Mainline and Coast is the largest, planning 373,856 trains between 2015-16 and 2016-17. Less than half of these trains arrived within a minute of their scheduled arrival time.

Over the same period, Southern Metro planned 280,483 trains and Thameslink a further 254,053. 47 per cent of Southern Metro trains were on time, while Thameslink achieved 54 per cent.

Of the five sub-operators owned by Govia, Gatwick Express had the worst record when it came to trains arriving within one minute of their scheduled arrival time – with just one third of all trains achieving this target.

A spokesman for Govia Thameslink Railway said: “We ran over 1.1 million trains in that year which is more than anyone else in the UK so the numbers will be higher.

“However, this is a reflection of the ongoing industrial action by the RMT union which has resulted in high levels of cancellations and disruption for passengers, for which we are sincerely sorry, as well as continued reliability issues which both we and Network Rail are working hard to address.”

The data from the Department for Transport (DfT) and Network Rail was released by the Office of Road and Rail, the industry regulator.

Govia also gives out far less in compensation to delayed passengers than it receives from Network Rail for unplanned disruption.

Rail companies paid out £45 million in compensation to delayed passengers in England and Wales during the past year while receiving £105 million from Network Rail for unplanned disruption, new figures show.

Govia paid compensation claims worth a total of £2 million during 201516, while Network Rail’s bill in relation to the lines in south-east England was £22 million.

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, described NR’s payments as “entirely separate” from those made to passengers.

‘This is a reflection of ongoing industrial action which has resulted in high levels of cancellations’