Third of trains on some of London’s busiest commuter lines ran late last year despite passengers paying highest fares in Europe
One in three trains on some of London’s
busiest commuter lines ran late last year, official figures reveal today. On
some lines across the UK
during 2013-14 more than half failed to run on time, said rail union leaders.
Southern,
where services include the Brighton line, was at the bottom of the London league of shame
with just 54.2 per cent of trains on schedule. Southeastern only managed 61.6
per cent punctuality and South West Trains 65.7 per cent. The statistics, from
Network Rail’s own accounts, are “real time figures” for the year ending in
April – not the usual published figures which only record commuter trains
as late if they are more than five minutes behind schedule or 10 minutes for
long distance services. They were highlighted today by Manuel Cortes, leader of
the TSSA transport union, at the opening of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Liverpool. He said: “Even given the bad winter weather,
these figures show that the private rail firms are still not delivering the levels
of service that passengers expect in return for paying the highest fares in
Europe. These figures show daily reality of persistently late trains for
millions of passengers who are facing yet another increase in fares of 2.5 per
cent in January. The performance of too many operators has been truly woeful.”
Rail
bosses said that nine out of 10 trains ran on time during 2012-13 – saying that
was the most up to date full financial year figures available. Chiltern,
however, which runs services to and from Marylebone, came top of the list with
85.9 per of trains on time. London Overground was in third slot with 84.2 per
cent and c2c came in fourth with 83.4 per cent.
A spokesman for the Rail
Delivery Group, representing Network Rail and rail operators, said: “More than
nine out of 10 trains arrived as planned in 2012-13 which meant 600 million
more punctual passenger journeys compared to 1997-98. “Because rail users are
at the heart of what we do, we know we must continue to drive up performance on
Europe’s fastest growing and most improved
railway.”
The full list; Arriva Trains Wales 84.4 per cent; c2c 83.4; Chiltern
85.9; CrossCountry 41.7; East Coast 54.9; East Midlands Trains 69.7; First
Capital Connect 64.3; First Great Western 66.8; First Hull Trains 48.8; First
ScotRail 58; First Transpennine Express 60.2; Grand Central 40.4; Greater
Anglia 70.6; Heathrow Express 72.4; London Midland 60.9; London
Overground 84.2; Merseyrail 72; Northern Rail 72.5; Southeastern 61.6; Southern
54.2; South West Trains 65.7; Virgin Trains 52. (Source TSSA.).