Published on: Monday, 25 February 2019
Last updated: Monday, 25 February 2019
Rail passengers in East Anglia have seen more of their trains running on time since the beginning of the year, figures revealed by Greater Anglia show.
Punctuality on many Greater Anglia routes was well over 90 per cent during January 2019 according to the latest performance results*.
The best performance was achieved on the Marks Tey - Sudbury branch line, with 96.8% of trains on time, the Norwich – Great Yarmouth line, with 96.1% of trains on time; Norwich – Lowestoft line, 95.7%; Norwich to Sheringham, 94.0%; Ipswich – Felixstowe, 92.4% and Ipswich – Lowestoft, 91.1% - its best result in a year.
Train services on the Great Eastern Main Line (the Norwich – Ipswich – Colchester – London line and all its branch lines) also performed well during the period with 91.8% of trains arriving on time.
Greater Anglia’s Norwich – Ipswich – Colchester – London intercity trains also scored their best punctuality result since last May, at 89.8%.
Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Greater Anglia, said: “We were pleased to see performance improve in January, as we know how important this is for our customers. Our aim now is to provide better punctuality more consistently across the whole network and we have invested over £20million to date in a fleet reliability programme to help achieve this target.
“In addition, Network Rail is focusing on reducing the most disruptive faults with tracks, overhead lines and signals, removing temporary speed restrictions and getting the railway running back to normal more quickly when delays do occur. They are also investing significant sums to improve reliability of the track, signalling and wires.”
“The introduction of our brand-new fleet of trains will further help in making the service more resilient, as the current eight different types of train will be replaced with just three types, making them easier to maintain.”
“The general trends are in the right direction and we expect to see further progress over the weeks and months ahead.”
Recently, Greater Anglia received a Golden Whistle Award for ‘Best Performance’ for its intercity services.
The Institution of Railway Operators measured all UK train services which arrived within 59 seconds of their scheduled time, including at all intermediate stations on the journey rather than just at the destination station, for a year up to 8 December 2018, and found that Greater Anglia’s intercity services achieved the best punctuality score of all the intercity services across the country.
Overall annual average punctuality across Greater Anglia was 89.9% for the four weeks ending 2 February, and just over 87% on average over the past 12 months, but the train operator is aiming to raise that figure to 90% and then 93% by the end of its franchise.
*For the four week period ending on 2nd February 2019.