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Network Rail in breach of licence for performance on key passenger services
31 July 2013

Network Rail has breached its Network licence for performance on rail passenger services in the long distance and London & South East sectors in 2012-13, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) confirmed today.

ORR has conducted an extensive investigation into punctuality on long distance and London & South East services, after Network Rail missed annual targets for these sectors. The investigation concluded that Network Rail had not done everything reasonably practicable to deliver its targets for passengers and operators. ORR is requiring Network Rail to fully explain how it is addressing issues affecting performance on passenger services.

The regulator wants Network Rail to focus on putting resources and funding in place to fix the railway and deliver for passengers. The threat of a substantial penalty remains if the company does not achieve the levels of performance for which it is funded in 2013-14.

To read more about ORR^s investigation, visit: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.2961

Half of some South West train routes are late, show "real" figures

More than half the trains on some rail routes run late, ^real^ punctuality figures show, with fewer than half on some West Country routes running on time.

Worst of all was the CrossCountry franchise, which operates trains throughout the region, from Penzance to Cheltenham Spa, and as far north as Aberdeen, with just 45.2 per cent of its trains meeting the required standard.

Just 47.4 per cent of CrossCountry services on the West Coast main line were on time in the 12 months ending August 17, 2013, according to ^right-time^ statistics from Network Rail.

First Great Western and Stagecoach South West, which also cover the West Country, were above average, scoring 69.1 and 68.2 per cent respectively.

Within the ^right-time^ performance, a train is only considered to be on time if it arrives early or within 59 seconds of schedule.

On this basis, 67.6 per cent of trains nationally were on time in the 12 months ending August 17. Operators in London and the South East  reached 68.5 per cent but the figure for long-distance services was only 53.2 per cent.

Network Rail publishes the right-time performance alongside the public performance measure (PPM) figures under which the company^s punctuality record is assessed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

Under PPM, a short-distance train is deemed to be late if it arrives five minutes or more after the scheduled time, while a long-distance train has to arrive ten minutes or more behind schedule to be considered late.

Under PPM, 90.8 per cent of trains were on time nationally for the 12 months ending August 18 2013. Virgin Trains had the poorest punctuality figure ^ 83.1 per cent.

Network Rail says that as far as the right-time figures are concerned ^the process for gathering data of this accuracy is currently not 100 per cent reliable and the industry is working on improving the quality of this information to make right-time data more reliable^.

Nationally, around 60 per cent of delays to train services are attributed to Network Rail, which has been repeatedly warned by the ORR about its punctuality performance.

Virgin Trains has been at loggerheads with NR over West Coast delays, with Virgin upset that its request to run more services on the line has been turned down.

Punctuality 2012-13
Arriva Trains Wales  85.8%
c2c Rail 84.9%
Chiltern 87.5%
CrossCountry 45.2%
East Coast 57.9%
East Midlands Trains 73.8%
First Capital Connect 68.0%
First Great Western 69.1%
First ScotRail 58.1%
First Transpennine 61.9%
Greater Anglia 71.8%
London Midland 61.0%
London Overground 86.2%
Merseyrail 73.0%
Northern Rail 71.9%
Southeastern 64.3%
Southern 55.9%
Stagecoach SW 68.2%
Virgin Trains 47.4%
National average 67.6%