Joint approach reaps record rail punctuality results

Published on: Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Last updated: Thursday, 20 June 2019

A new collaborative approach to cutting delays on the railway has led to record punctuality on the Greater Anglia network, with just under 94 per cent of trains running on time last month – the best performance for six years

Since Greater Anglia and Network Rail launched their Every Second Counts campaign six months ago, to tackle every aspect of delays, more trains have been running on time each month.

The latest statistics reveal that average punctuality – which last month was 93.7 per cent – is the best since May 2013 and the best yet in the current franchise, which began in October 2016. Performance on some routes is amongst the best in the last 20 years.

Punctuality on the Great Eastern Mainline, between Ipswich, Colchester, Harwich, Clacton and Southend to London, is the third best of the last 20 years, at 95.5 per cent, while the Intercity route between Norwich and London, saw the second-best performance of the last 20 years, with 93.5 per cent of trains on time last month.

The Every Second Counts Campaign sees Greater Anglia and Network Rail holding regular “performance summits” to look at problems causing delays and analyse how to overcome them.

Join 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.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “It’s great to see hard work paying off with performance improving, which makes such a big difference to our customers.

“As well as the impressive punctuality figures we’ve seen in the last month, we’re also regularly seeing 100 per cent peaks, when all the rush hour trains run on time, which is such a positive boost.”

Steve Hooker, chief operating officer at Network Rail Anglia, said: “It’s been six months since the start of Every Second Counts, which focuses on the top eight causes of why trains are delayed, and we have set aside a £10m booster fund to tackle these key areas.

“The recent improved punctuality is a testament to everyone’s hard work. But we are not complacent, and will continue to work with Greater Anglia to seek better ways to improve reliability and train punctuality for our passengers to make journeys better for everyone.”

The top five most punctual routes last month were Marks Tey-Sudbury, 97.5 per cent, Norwich-Sheringham, 96 per cent, London-Harwich, 95.9 per cent, London-Southend/Southminster, 95.6 per cent and London-Colchester/Clacton/Walton and Norwich-Lowestoft, 95.2 per cent.

Punctuality on the West Anglia route, which includes Cambridge to Liverpool Street, and Stansted Express is also over 90 per cent, at 92.4 per and 92.6 per cent respectively.

Other routes with more than nine out of ten trains on time last month were Norwich-Great Yarmouth, 93.4 per cent, London-Ipswich/Norwich, 93.2 per cent, East Suffolk, 92 per cent, Ipswich-Peterborough/Cambridge 91.5 per cent and Ipswich-Felixstowe, 90 per cent.