GWR Performance Figures

[whole diary]

[froome]

Rather than take other threads off topic this seems a better place to ask about trains that skip stops.

If a service drops some stations and runs non stop does this affect the targets? Are there penalties for doing this or is it only the arrival time at the final stop? When I've looked into this in the past it seems to be the arrival times of certain services between certain times e.g. for Thames Valley all Paddington services between 07.00 and 09.00 (to make up a random example) which would suggest that skipping stations isn't penalised but this was only a short summary.

I'd imagine though the actual performance measure are  not a small document. I think I read somewhere about several pages dedicated to bird strikes and depending on the size of bird where responsibility lay and how much.

Good questions which I would also be interested in knowing the answer to. As a user of a station which does get occasionally skipped, I'm well aware that skipping a station may only inconvenience a relatively small number of passengers (though at mine, Oldfield Park, it is normally at least 20 even on the quietest of days) but is a severe inconvenience to those people (who can't make any claim as they haven't actually bought a ticket, but whose journey may then become impossible).

[paul7575]

Southern answered this fairly succinctly a while back, in a reply to a critical item in the Guardian.  They said (from memory) that as soon as the decision to skip stops is taken the service is recorded as a PPM^‡(resolve) failure, even if it recovers time by the final destination.

I've seen this point made in other forums since.  Basically the idea is to write off one service for PPM in the hope that the next (and following) legs of the train's overall diagram are unaffected.

Paul

[Sixty3Closure]

I don't know how it reflects into performance / penalties fares ... but I do know that an unplanned stop on the fast main lines at Slough, Maidenhead, and Twyford can have a knock-on effect for hours as there's simply no slack in there.   Stops at one of these stations are typically put into services leaving Paddington in the slot ahead of a Heathrow Express service, so that the train after it slowdown, station duties and restart ends up in the slot the HEX would have occupied had it not branched off to the airport.  Move that train a few minutes later and it ends up creating a ripple effect on following trains if it makes the stops ... and that makes the following trains delayed to knock on as they get further west over Cotswold single lines, or with failing connections at places like Swindon.

With a system running so close to capacity, the only remedies are to increase the capacity or improve the reliability / timekeeping;  moving the existing deck chairs around isn't going to provide a solution - just a marginally better set of winner and looser tradeoffs...

Very interesting and answers another question I had about why there seems to be a disproportionate number of cancellations (with my inbuilt bias anyway) of fast trains to Maidenhead and Twyford or when this happens why other services can't stop there. Not sure understanding will make me any happier next time it happens though.

Edited to get the quotes right.

[ChrisB]

Southern answered this fairly succinctly a while back, in a reply to a critical item in the Guardian.  They said (from memory) that as soon as the decision to skip stops is taken the service is recorded as a PPM^‡(resolve) failure, even if it recovers time by the final destination.

I've seen this point made in other forums since.  Basically the idea is to write off one service for PPM in the hope that the next (and following) legs of the train's overall diagram are unaffected.

Yep - becomes a (part) cancelation & moves to the reliability PPM measure, rather than the performance measure.

[IndustryInsider]

Latest figures are attached.  An 'OK' month of figures with HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) at 88.5% and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) at 83.1%.  That caused the MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average) (Moving Annual Average) to drop 0.2% on both groups to 88.2% and 84.8% respectively.

88.2% for HSS is now only 0.2% above the season ticket discount trigger, so I'm sure GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) management are keeping their fingers crossed that the winter remains cold but calm and they can get that figure moving back upwards again!

As it's been a year (13 reporting periods) since I first started these posts, I thought it relevant that I should compare the various MAA's for punctuality at the turn of 2017, with what they were this time last year.

It's not a particularly impressive set of figures to say the least.  The good news first is that the LTV sector rose 0.5% from 84.3% to 84.8%, but that's where the good news ends as all other groups saw their figures fall - some by well over 1%.  Here's the details, with the 2016 figure first, then the 2017 figure, then the difference between the two:

London Thames Valley services:  84.3%     84.8%     Change +0.5%
High Speed Services:  89.0%     88.2%     Change -0.8%
Bristol Suburban Services:  92.2%     90.9%     Change -1.3%
Devon Services:  95.7%     95.2%     Change -0.5%
Plymouth/Cornwall:  98.0%     97.7%     Change -0.3%
Wales to South Coast:  93.6%     92.3%   Change -1.3%

You could argue that these reductions simply mirror the national trend of generally worsening performance, so it isn't really GWR's fault as such, but either way you look at it it's both worrying and depressing for staff/management and users of the service.

[IanL]

I have been a regular on the Cotswold line since 2001 and it was the dark days of 2006/7 that got me involved here when the performance figures both monthly and MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average) dipped to around 64%. I used to have the figures gleaned from posters at oxford as FGW^▸ (First Great Western) as it was then, frequently didn't update their website every month. I had many email exchanges with Alison Forster at the time and also David Cameron who was then just our local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) who arranged for FGW executives to attend a town meeting in Charlbury.

In those days some peak morning trains (e.g. 0730ish train from CBY) didn't run for a whole week!

[IndustryInsider]

Another poor month to start the year.  HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) services are now on the trigger point of 88% for the Moving Annual Average, though read the small print and it says: 'The trigger is the point at which we give a discount for season ticket holders. If we don’t meet one of the targets, and fall below the trigger percentage in the last 12 months, we’ll give our season ticket holders 5% off their next season ticket.'

I would argue that if the trigger is 'the point' at which discounts are given then it should not need to 'fall below the trigger percentage' in order for everyone to get 5% off when they renew.  Can anyone clarify?

LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) scored an underwhelming 78.2% for the month, possibly linked to the settling in of the new Hayes electric services, reducing that sector's MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average) to 84.1%.  No grey areas over eligibility for 5% off there!

Here's the usual graph:

[IndustryInsider]

Main reason for posting, though, was I find this thread to be a useful resource to see whether the service has been particularly poor over a period or whether it's just a perception in my mind - it's good to have it as comprehensive as possible!

Hopefully some find this thread useful for the same reasons.

Here's the latest figures and it was indeed a much better month than of late, though slightly worse than this time last year.  The HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) result wasn't good enough to stop the Moving Annual Average dipping below the magic 88% to 87.8% which means the trigger discount for season tickets has now been reached. 

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether this means you have to be renewing your season ticket whilst it remains below this threshold or because it's dipped below at some point during the previous year, even if it rises between now and the end of the year anyone renewing will get the discount?

[ChrisB]

As its a moving average, the discount applues to purchases made while it is valid, as that rdflects the annual average delay across your season. Any other season will have a different average delay statistic. So the former

[t0m]

Ratbags!

They'll have to put in a decent performance on the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) punctuality stats to bring the average back up with those relatively deep troughs.

I'm yet to receive any meaningful discount from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) on my season.. their season ticket compensation arrangements really are shocking. I've enjoyed significantly more compensation from Southern Rail and my season only uses a small part of my route with them (just had 1/12th of my annual Didcot -> Zones 1-6 season refunded due to the strike issues last year).

[IndustryInsider]

Not a bad month of stats for the latest period, though a few percentage points worse than the same period last year, so as t0m pointed out with the very poor results around the turn of the year and those good results this time last year, the Moving Annual Average (MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average)) figure is going to be very difficult to get rising upwards again in the near future.

88.0% and 85.5% for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) respectively, saw the MAA fall by 0.2% on both sectors to 87.6% and 83.8%.

[t0m]

and those latest numbers not doing much to help!

Maybe there is hope of getting a season ticket discount (or some better on time performance!)

[IndustryInsider]

Latest graph attached, and whilst it was a pretty good month of statistics - the best in nine months for LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) and the best in a year for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) - the results were still nearly three percentage points lower than the very good results from the same period last year.  The MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average) for both sectors dropped another 0.3% as a result.  GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will be hoping for a benign summer of weather as this was where the performance started to fall off this time last year, so the MAA may start to pick up again if reasonable results are recorded.

[IndustryInsider]

Last month's figures are now on the attached graph.  Marginally better than this time last year for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) meant recent falls to the MAA^▸ (Moving Annual Average)'s were halted, with the LTV figure raising by 0.1%.  Not on the graphs, but the best figure since I started logging the data 18 months ago was recorded by the Plymouth/Cornwall section at 99.0% punctuality.

These two graphs contain data for the Passenger's Charter figures which only include peak time services.  To give a wider picture of delay trends, I'm going to widen the scope of this thread soon by including graphs for the All-Day Public Performance Measure (PPM^‡(resolve)) figures, and the All-Day Right Time figures when I have a couple of months worth of data.

[IndustryInsider]

Latest figures, showing the results up to 24th June are attached.  This covered the heatwave between 18th-21st June, so probably not surprising to see the results dive-bombing somewhat.

This continues the downward trend of late though, with the Moving Annual Averages of the HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) sector a worrying 3% lower than this time last year, with LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) also down by 2%.