Published on: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Last updated: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Annual punctuality over 94% with four routes at 97.8% or above
Figures released by Greater Anglia (GA) today show that it is continuing to deliver very high levels of punctuality, on an ongoing basis, for customers across East Anglia.
Performance for the last 4-week period (ending 16 September) saw punctuality across the Greater Anglia network averaging 93.8% - using the long-standing public performance measure (PPM), which measures arrival times at destination stations for each service.
As a result, the GA moving annual average PPM figure is now at 94.1% - continuing the historically high results being delivered by the train operator over the last three and a half 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 95.0%, rural services across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, plus the Marks Tey to Sudbury line, are averaging 94.9%, intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and London are averaging 94.3%.
West Anglia services to destinations including Hertford East, Harlow, Bishops Stortford, Cambridge and Ely are averaging 93.1% and Stansted Express services are averaging 90.9%.
Exceptional annual results of 97.8% or over have been achieved on four routes:
- Norwich to Great Yarmouth - 99.0%
- Marks Tey to Sudbury - 98.1%
- Norwich to Lowestoft - 98.0%
- Norwich to Sheringham - 97.8%
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 93.1%.
In addition, the Office of Rail and Road’s most recent performance statistics covering the 3 months from April to June 2023 also showed Greater Anglia as the top UK train operator, using the even more demanding “On Time” metric (which measures arrival at every station within 1 minute of the scheduled time) with a result of 87.7%. In the same ORR report GA also had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 1.4%.
Traditionally, annual PPM performance results across the Greater Anglia network have tended to average between 87% and 91%, with a highest annual result of 92.8% in June 2013.
However, over the last three and a half years, annual performance has consistently averaged over 93% all year round – fulfilling, ahead of schedule, a commitment GA made, 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 results, Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Greater Anglia said:
“We are pleased to be consistently delivering high levels of punctuality for our customers and stakeholders in East Anglia.
"It was always our intention that the transformation of train services linked to the introduction of our new trains would include very high standards of performance, as well as more comfortable journeys and more seating capacity.
“It is testament to the commitment of our teams, and our partnership with Network Rail colleagues, that we have been delivering these impressive results on a consistent basis for over 3 years now, despite the increasing challenges of more regular extreme weather events which can cause disruption to services.
“We are fully focused on maintaining these excellent performance standards and making further improvements for our customers and communities in the months and years ahead.”