September sees almost 94% of trains on time

Almost 94% of service on Britain’s railway during September ran on time, with Chiltern Railways being the most punctual.

A Virgin train on the west coast main line

The figures were released today in Network Rail’s regular monthly report on train performance. During the period from 22 August to 18 September, 93.5% of services arrived on time. This compares to 93.6% in same period last year.

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: “September has been a good month for delivering a high-quality, punctual service to the millions of passengers and freight users who rely on train services every day.”

In all, 13 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains seeing the biggest improvement (up to 91.3% from 89.0% last year). The rest saw marginal movements in performance with no operator seeing significant movement (more than three percentage points).

Mr Gisby concluded: “Performance for services using the East Coast main line is presently running below the very high standards we set ourselves. Working closely with the train operator, joint action plans are in place, and we expect performance to improve over the coming months.”