Published on: Thursday, 19 September 2019
Last updated: Thursday, 19 September 2019
Greater Anglia has been highlighted for improving punctuality and reliability in an official report published today.
In its latest report on railway performance, the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) lists Greater Anglia as one of the top five train companies in the country for most improved punctuality and in the top ten for most improved reliability.
The company also features in the report’s headlines for improving punctuality from April to June by 10.7 per cent compared to the same time period last year due to a reduction in delays.
The ORR report uses a number of measures to record different aspects of performance including the Punctuality and Performance Measure (PPM) which records when a train arrives early or up to five minutes after the scheduled time.
It also uses the industry’s latest “on time” measure which calculates the proportion of recorded station stops arrived at early or less than one minute after the scheduled time.
The on time measure is almost always lower than the PPM figure.
From April to June 2019, Greater Anglia’s on time moving annual average punctuality was 66.6 per cent – up 3.4 per cent – the fifth most improved in the country.
In the same period the company’s average PPM was 93.3 per cent. This year, monthly PPM has regularly topped 90 per cent.
The report also tracks delay minutes – time lost between consecutive timing points. From April to June 2019, Greater Anglia saw a 10.7 per cent improvement in punctuality due to large falls in delay minutes.
Reliability is measured in the report by tracking the proportion of trains cancelled – and once again the report shows improvements from Greater Anglia with a 0.1 per cent drop in cancellations to 2.4 per cent.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “Whichever way we measure it, the main thing for us is that we want to make sure that more customers arrive at their destination on time, or even early.
“All this year we’ve been working with Network Rail on an “Every Second Counts” campaign to improve the performance of the railway in East Anglia so that more of our customers arrive at their destinations on time or early.
“I’m please to see that our hard work is paying off, but we will not be complacent, there is still much we can do to further improve punctuality for our customers.”
Greater Anglia and Network Rail is running a joint punctuality campaign – Every Second Counts – with regular “performance summits” to look at problems causing delays and analyse how to overcome them.
Joint improvement plans have been drawn up and a more proactive recovery policy established for dealing with delays caused by broken down trains.
Actions from Network Rail include a £10 million booster fund for initiatives specifically to improve performance, maintenance work on problem areas and removal of long-standing speed restrictions.
The two companies have also signed a public commitment, pledging to work together to ensure that every effort is made to run a punctual and reliable railway in East Anglia.
Greater Anglia is currently replacing all of its existing trains with brand new trains, which will further improve punctuality and reliability.