MPS demand stricter rules to assess rail service punctuality
TRAINS should be classed as late if they arrive more than a minute after their scheduled destination time, instead of being given up to nine minutes’ more flexibility, an influential group of MSPS has said.
Areport has called for the current system of recording trains as late after 10 minutes – or five minutes for short-distance services – to be abolished and replaced with a more accurate method of collecting punctuality figures.
It follows complaints from rail watchdog Passenger Focus that people were frustrated at seeing their trains classified as on time even though they had reached t heir s t a t i on several minutes late.
The report by Holyrood’s Infrastructure and Capital Investment (ICI) Committee is due to be published today in response to the Rail 2014 consultation, which sets out the future of Scotland’s railways and provoked a wave of criticism in November over fears it would lead to longer journey times, more passengers standing and a hike in rail fares.
The MSPS said t he current thresholds of five and 10 minutes included in the Public Performance Measure ( PPM) “do not adequately reflect the difficulties and inconvenience caused to passengers who are on trains that arrive late but still within the relevant threshold” and added that the threshold should be reduced.
Rail industry sources have pointed out that introducing a “right time” system for recording punctuality could have a number of unwanted side-effects such as ensuring that train drivers no longer hold their doors open as passengers are rushing to get onboard.
Abolishing flexibility within punctuality figures would also act as a disincentive for growth as train companies would be less willing to add extra services for fear this would affect their punctuality performance, a source said.
However, Passenger Focus said in evidence to the committee:: “For every minute of delay, passenger satisfaction falls by five percentage points. The industry might judge a train reaching Edinburgh nine minutes over time as being on time, but hundreds of passengers will be getting off that train dissatisfied at arriving nine minutes late.”
Aspokesman for the Scottish Government said: “We welcome the ICI report and the findings will be taken into consideration along with the consultation responses as we prepare the next franchise agreement.”