Stats show 74.7% of trains arrived on time in late 2020

 
‘On time’ performance was the third highest quarterly percentage since the time series began in 2014-15

 
The latest statistics from the Office of Rail and Road have found that between October to December 2020, there were 1.7 million trains planned (11% fewer than the same quarter last year) and of those 74.7% arrived on time.

Although performance remains high compared to the same quarter in 2019, this was lower than both the first and second quarters of 2020.

The punctuality of all 23 operators improved in 2020/21 Q3 compared with a year earlier. LNER, TransPennine Express and TfW Rail Services had the largest increases in on-time percentages, up 36.4pp, 32.1pp and 24.4pp respectively.

The stats also show between January and December 2020, 75.6% of recorded station stops in Great Britain (52.6 million out of 69.6 million) were arrived at ‘On Time’.

The Public Performance Measure (PPM) was the highest Q3 percentage since the time series began in 1997-98, with 91.8% of trains arriving within 5 or 10 minutes of their final destination.

2.4% of trains planned were cancelled. In 2020-21 Q3, operator attributed cancellations stood at 48.7% while Network Rail was attributed with responsibility for 30.2% of cancellations for infrastructure and network management issues and a further 21.2% due to external incidents such as severe weather and trespassing.

Meanwhile, the reliability (number of cancelled trains) of 18 operators improved in 2020-21 Q3 compared with the same quarter last year (2019-20 Q3). TransPennine Express (down 10.5 pp), West Midlands Trains (down 5.0 pp) and Northern Trains (down 4.2 pp) had the largest decreases in cancellations.

 
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