Train performance continued at record high levels in March with 93 out of 100 trains arriving on time during the month.

The figures were released last week (Wednesday 14 Apr 2010)  in Network Rail's regular monthly report on train performance.  During the period from 7 March to 31 March, 93.5% of services arrived on time.  This compares to 92.7% in same period, period 13, last year  and is up slightly from last month. (see our Story 92% of trains arrive on time during February- 28 March 2010)

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: “Passengers continue to enjoy a high performing, punctual railway.  We, and the train operators, continue to invest in the railway to make it even better by providing more capacity, better stations and fewer buses.

"The immediate threat of a national rail strike is behind us and talks to resolve the situation with our trades unions continue.  We believe an amicable settlement, without the need for further ballots or threats of strike action, is possible."

11 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve, or stay at record high levels, compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains and London Midland seeing the biggest improvement in performance this month compared to the same period last year. Six of the 19 operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):

Table of operators that saw the most significant changes in performance

              P13 2009/10     P13 2008/09      % point change
 Virgin Trains       91.0%      83.4%         +7.6%
 East Coast          87.0%         91.9%          -4.9%
 London Overground      96.4%      92.0%         +4.4%
 London Midland      92.5%         88.4%          +4.1%
 CrossCountry      89.2%         93.3%         -4.1%
 Southern            94.0%         91.0%          +3.0%
 

National train punctuality is measured for all trains across the whole of each, including cancelled services and delays caused by external factors (such as vandalism, extreme weather, suicides etc).  Punctuality did not start to be recorded in this vigorous and thorough way until 1997.  Before then Railtrack, and BR before it, did not measure all services and also excluded external factors and other items from their numbers

These figures represent provisional data for the period and individuals operators performance data may vary slightly from the full period performance report  that Network Rail publishes on its website around one month after period end

Network Rail and the train operators run more trains across Great Britain than are run in most European countries - almost 20% more than in France and 60% more than in Italy.
Great Britain's 24,000 trains per-day is also more than Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Portugal and Norway combined