Published on: Thursday, 21 March 2024
Last updated: Thursday, 21 March 2024
A Greater Anglia train. Credit: Greater Anglia
Annual punctuality at 94.6% with four routes over 97%
Figures released by Greater Anglia (GA) today highlight continuing excellent punctuality results being delivered for customers across East Anglia. Performance for the last 4-week period (ending 2 March) saw punctuality across the Greater Anglia network averaging 93.9% - using the long-standing public performance measure (PPM), which measures arrival times at destination stations for each service, despite a period which saw more storms and extreme weather.
As a result, the GA moving annual average PPM figure is now at 94.6% - continuing the historically high results being delivered by the train operator for almost four years. Great Eastern services across Essex, serving destinations such as Southend, Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester, Clacton, Harwich, and up to Ipswich in Suffolk, have an annual average of 96.7%, rural services across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, plus the Marks Tey to Sudbury line, are averaging 94.6%, intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and London are averaging 94.4%, West Anglia services to destinations including Hertford East, Harlow, Bishops Stortford, Cambridge and Ely are averaging 93.0% and Stansted Express services are averaging 90.2%.
Exceptional annual results of 97.0% or over have been achieved on four routes:
Norwich to Great Yarmouth 98.3%
Marks Tey to Sudbury 98.1%
Norwich to Sheringham 97.3%
Norwich to Lowestoft 97.1%
The impressive results are also evident using the more challenging “Time to 3” performance measure – which measures the arrival within 3 minutes of every single train at every single station it serves. On this measure GA’s annual performance is 94.3%.
In addition, recent figures published by the Office of Rail and Road showed GA as the best performing “on time” operator in the UK for the October to December 2023 period.
Similarly, looking at annual performance over the last 12 months, Greater Anglia has delivered the best performance in the UK for on time at all stations (86.3%), “time to 3” at all stations (94.3%) and the public performance measure (94.6%), the joint best cancellation record (1.5% with c2c) and fifth for “time to 15” at all stations (99.3%).
Traditionally, annual PPM performance results across the Greater Anglia network have tended to average between 87% and 91%, with a previous highest annual result of 92.8% in June 2013. However, over the last four years, annual performance has consistently averaged over 93% all year round – fulfilling, ahead of schedule, a commitment made by GA, when it was awarded the contract to continue operating services in the region in 2016, to increase punctuality to 93% by 2025.
The higher performance levels are due to a combination of three main factors – sustained joint work by Greater Anglia and Network Rail to improve performance standards; the better performance provided by the new Greater Anglia trains, which have been being phased in over the last 4 years and now operate all Greater Anglia services; and work by Network Rail to improve rail infrastructure reliability.
Commenting on the ongoing positive performance results, Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Greater Anglia said:
“We are pleased to be consistently delivering high levels of punctuality for our customers and stakeholders across East Anglia.
“We are committed to keeping up these very high standards of performance, to complement the transformation in the journey experience brought by our new trains, with their greater comfort, better facilities (including plug/USB points and Wi-Fi), increased seating capacity and better accessibility.”