Published on: Thursday, 6 February 2020
Last updated: Thursday, 6 February 2020
Commuters in East Anglia saw the punctuality of some train services improve last year, new figures show.
Greater Anglia was named ‘most improved’ operator for the punctuality of its commuter services in Essex and Hertfordshire, after figures were announced by Modern Railways’ Fourth Friday Club and the Institution of Railway Operators at the annual ‘Golden Whistles’ awards.
Punctuality on these lines improved by 13.1% compared to the previous year, making Greater Anglia the most improved of all London and South East train operators.
Greater Anglia’s Norwich – London Intercity services also recorded a 13.5% improvement on the previous year’s figure, making them the second ‘most improved’ of all long distance train operators in the UK.
The Institution of Railway Operators measured all UK train services which arrived within 59 seconds of their scheduled time for the year ending 9th November 2019 on a moving annual average using industry data.
The awards come after the operator’s Class 321 commuter trains in Essex, saw an improvement of reliability of 165% last year compared to the previous year - leading to a reduction in delays of 27% and 41% fewer cancellations for this type of train.
Since the end of 2018, Greater Anglia has been on a punctuality drive to improve the performance of the railway in East Anglia, with some months of record-breaking punctuality in 2019, especially on the Great Eastern Main Line and Southend Line, which saw four successive months of over 94.5 per cent from March to June.
The improvements meant far fewer delayed trains with over 35,000 services that were late in 2018 arriving within one minute of their scheduled arrival time in 2019.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s Managing Director, said: “I am delighted that the work of our train service delivery, depot and fleet teams to improve the performance of our trains, while at the same time undertaking the complex task of testing and introducing a whole new train fleet, has been recognised at the Golden Whistles Awards.
“We are replacing every single train with brand new trains, but until then we will continue to make our existing trains as reliable as possible, which is why we have invested over £23 million in reliability improvements to provide the consistent and improving levels of train service performance that our customers expect.”