Punctuality continues to improve on many Greater Anglia rail routes

Published on: Friday, 17 May 2019
Last updated: Friday, 17 May 2019

Punctuality across the Greater Anglia network has improved for a fifth consecutive month, with over nine out of ten trains running on time, according to the latest figures.

Train operator Greater Anglia has announced that 93.07% of its services ran on schedule in April 2019, continuing an upward trend in punctuality since the beginning of the year.

The best performance was achieved on the Marks Tey – Sudbury branch line, with 98.1% of trains on time, the Norwich - Sheringham line with 97.6%, the London – Harwich line with 96.5%, the Norwich – Lowestoft with 95.9%, the London – Colchester / Clacton-on-Sea / Walton-on-the-Naze with 95.8%, and the Norwich – Great Yarmouth line with 95.3%.

Punctuality for the whole Greater Anglia network was 93.07% this period, the highest since September 2013, with performance on the Great Eastern Mainline between London Liverpool Street and Essex and Suffolk also hitting a new high of 95.8%

The number of delays on Greater Anglia services are also at the lowest ever recorded – despite the train operator running more trains, which are increasingly ageing, and carrying more passengers than ever.

Jay Thompson, Greater Anglia train service delivery director, said: “We know how important a consistent, reliable service is for our customers so this is really great news for them.

“Many of our morning and evening peaks services are now regularly operating at 100 per cent punctuality, which is great news for the thousands of commuters who travel with us every day.

“But there is still more we can do and we are carefully monitoring all of our services, looking at what causes every single minute of delay and how to prevent a similar delay another time.

“We have also set up a joint performance improvement taskforce with Network Rail to look in detail at the causes of delays and we are bringing in a team of external consultants to review our approach to see how we can improve further still.”

“The introduction of our brand-new fleet of trains will also help to make the service more resilient, as the current eight different types of train will be replaced with just three types, making them easier to maintain.”

Other notable results include punctuality on the Norwich – Cambridge line, which improved by 8.4% to 86.8% thanks to the removal of a speed restriction on the line relating to track condition, which had been the primary cause of delays on the route.

On the West Anglia route, between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, performance improved to 89.85% – up from 85.7% at the beginning of the year – partially as a result of Greater Anglia adjusting stopping patterns of trains to prevent persistent delays.

Additional initiatives Network Rail is undertaking on the West Anglia route are expected to further increase punctuality in the coming months.

Steve Hooker, Network Rail Anglia chief operating officer said: “We recently introduced a new performance improvement campaign called Every Second Counts, which focuses on the top eight causes of delay, and put aside a £10m booster fund to tackle these key areas.

“The early results are promising as shown by the improved punctuality, but we are not complacent and will continue to seek more ways to improve reliability for our passengers. We’re working harder and in smarter ways with Greater Anglia to improve train punctuality and make journeys better for everyone.”

Overall annual average punctuality across Greater Anglia is now 88.1% – higher than the national average of 86.1%.

The train operator is aiming to raise that figure to 90% and then 93% by the end of its franchise.

Performance figures, including cancellations and shortened trains are available on the Greater Anglia website.

The statistics quoted are the latest Public Performance Measure (PPM) figures for 1-27 April 2019.