Train punctuality figures, from Network Rail

[whole diary]

[Btline]

It should be noted that the LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise)'s Snow Hill Lines reached 95% punctuality.

This shows LM's true colours (i.e. what they can achieve without WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) woes), as Central Trains never got anywhere near that high!

[inspector_blakey]

A well deserved bouquet to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) for such a big improvement, methinks!

[John R]

Can we start thinking of taking some of the massive amounts of recovery time out of the timetable now then? It struck me on my recent trip to Glasgow how much shorter were the station stops, typically 45 secs to a minute, whereas on time FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services stand for 2 to 3 minutes at most stops (and 9 at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) tonight, followed by another 3 at Nailsea).

Maybe it's because Virgin want a headline journey time Birmingham to Glasgow of under 4 hours, whereas FGW don't really care what the overall journey time is.

 

[gwr2006]

Can we start thinking of taking some of the massive amounts of recovery time out of the timetable now then? It struck me on my recent trip to Glasgow how much shorter were the station stops, typically 45 secs to a minute, whereas on time FGW^▸ (First Great Western) services stand for 2 to 3 minutes at most stops (and 9 at BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) tonight, followed by another 3 at Nailsea).

Maybe it's because Virgin want a headline journey time Birmingham to Glasgow of under 4 hours, whereas FGW don't really care what the overall journey time is.

 

Recovery time, pathing allowances, or engineering allowances are not the same thing as station dwell time. Trains that have automatic doors (such as Virgin West Coast's Pendolinos) can get away with having less dwell time than a train with manual doors (such as FGW's HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)) as the train manager can control them and make sure they are closed whereas with manual doors they have to allow time for passengers leaving them ajar. If people want less dwell time they could help by getting into the habit of closing doors behind them!

All allowances are set out by Network Rail in their Rules of the Plan and Rules of the Route and all timetaales have to comply with them.

[John R]

I do appreciate that they are different, and that it's a lot easier to control station working with a modern train with automatic doors.  But the main reason why trains dwell so long on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is that the timings are so slack that they arrive early. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

I have to say that I agree with John R: see previous posts on this forum, regarding timetable slack, and early arrivals (and indeed early departures!) 

[Oxman]

I am mystified by some of the comments here. My experience is in the east of the franchise - Reading/Didcot/Oxford etc - where the standard allowance at stations is two minutes. The actual time taken depends upon the number of customers boarding/alighting, and the number of dispatchers, plus other more random factors, such as bikes and assisted travel. The concept of extended station stops and early departures is completely foreign to me. For the majority of instances, its a case of getting the train out as quickly as possible.

At Reading, the plan is to have three dispatchers on platforms 4, 5 and 8. This allows all the doors to be closed and checked fairly quickly - even in the peaks this can be done in under two minutes. Often, its a case of waiting for the signal to clear, followed by a quick dispatch.

Elsewhere, its either a single dispatcher (asisted by the TM^‡(resolve)) or, at most, two dispatchers, and even then, dispatch within two minutes is the norm.

At unmanned stations, it all comes down to the efficiency of the TM and the goodwill of customers in closing doors. HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) on the Cotswolds and on Thames Valley stoppers have longer dwell times, simply because doors have to be closed manually. Its common practice to double man some of these trains, to help get them away quickly.

I can only assume that the extended dwell times apply somewhere out west - they certainly could not apply at, for example, platform 4 at Reading.

[thetrout]

I'd be interested to know what Wrexham & Shropshire's punctuallity figures are... From what i've heard, they are doing quite well for themselves

[Mookiemoo]

I'd be interested to know what Wrexham & Shropshire's punctuallity figures are... From what i've heard, they are doing quite well for themselves

They are my franchise of choice - I cant find anything that equals them in terms of punctuality or service

[cereal_basher]

I'd be interested to know what Wrexham & Shropshire's punctuallity figures are... From what i've heard, they are doing quite well for themselves

They are my franchise of choice - I cant find anything that equals them in terms of punctuality or service

I don't think a non-franchised operator can be your franchise of choice. 

[John R]

I can only assume that the extended dwell times apply somewhere out west - they certainly could not apply at, for example, platform 4 at Reading.

Certainly down services regularly pause awhile at Swindon, Chippenham, Bath, and arrive 5 minutes early into Bristol. If I remember I will try and time the journey in detail one day and will share the results.

[inspector_blakey]

Services that terminate in Bristol (and I suspect ones that carry on through Temple Meads to points west) have some recovery time added after Bath, with non-stop high speed services scheduled for 11 - 13 minutes BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) - BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains) but 15 minutes BTH - BRI.

However, if you want an example of excessive padding added at stations, try taking a journey on Cross Country where five-minute station dwell (most of it spent simply waiting "right time") seems to be the rule when things are running smoothly.

[IndustryInsider]

I can only assume that the extended dwell times apply somewhere out west - they certainly could not apply at, for example, platform 4 at Reading.

Taking the 05:02 Worcester SH-Paddington (which I was just discussing on another thread). This train will often arrive Oxford just before 06:25 where it is then booked a 5-minute stop before leaving at 06:30. It will then often arrive at Reading at about 06:54 and waits for its 06:58 booked departure - another 4 minutes. Add to that the fact it's allowed some 31 minutes to run fast to Paddington and that's one example where extended dwell times certainly do apply near London.

Granted, there are some examples of where running time and station time are very tight, but the example above is by no means unique.

[willc]

Network Rail have released new punctuality stats, showing FGW^▸ (First Great Western) at 94.6 per cent on time in period to end of May, up 5.3 per cent year from the same period a year ago. Extract below.

Full release, and link to Word document listing all operators, is at http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4453&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=2

TRAIN PUNCTUALITY REACHES NEW RECORD HIGH

Monday 22 June 2009 01:00
The number of trains arriving on time^ on Britain's railways reached a new record annual high^ in the year to 30 May 2009 as 90.8% of services arrived punctually. The highest level of train punctuality since comparable records^ began almost 20 years ago (1992).
Today sees Network Rail publish its second monthly report on train performance, a regular four weekly round-up of how trains across all the franchises on Britain's railways are performing.
Period 2, May 3 to 30 2009, saw 93.4% (91.7% last year) of services across the country arrive on time with 16 of the 19 train operators seeing improvement compared to the same period last year.
Nine operators saw significant movement in their performance (over two percentage points):
...............................P2 2009,-- P2 2008,-- % point change
East Midlands Trains, - 93.5%, - 87.2%, - +6.3
First Great Western, - 94.6%, - 89.3%, - +5.3
Virgin Trains, - 84.6%, - 80.8%, - +3.8
National Express East Coast, - 92.5%, - 89.5%, - +3
Northern Rail, - 94.2%, - 91.4%, - +2.8
London Midland, - 90.4%, - 87.7%, - +2.7
First Transpennine Express, - 94.7%, - 92.1%, - +2.6
Arriva Trains Wales, - 95.6%, - 93%, - +2.6
Southeastern, - 92.9%, - 90.4%, - +2.5
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer service, said: "Passengers across the network are reaping the real benefits of a high performing, punctual railway.

[Tim]

Well done to everyone who contributedto this