East Coast trains worst for punctuality

East Coast ran 85.1 per cent of trains on time in the period April 1-27 2013 and Virgin, the West Coast line operator, managed a punctuality figure of 86.0 per cent.

Both companies fell below the national average for the period of 93.0 per cent which was fractionally down on the figure of 93.3 per cent for the same period last year.

Announcing the figures yesterday, Network Rail (NR) said East Coast punctuality had been affected by two overhead line incidents – near Potters Bar in Hertfordshire and at Grantham in Lincolnshire.

NR said a signalling fault at Sandy in Bedfordshire and a fatality near Berwick upon Tweed on the England-Scotland border had also had an impact on East Coast services. East Coast has been run in the public sector since National Express ceased operating the franchise in 2009.

Earlier this year, the Government announced that East Coast would return to the private sector in February 2015.

Labour has claimed the Government has made a political decision over East Coast, pointing out that recent Office of Rail Regulation figures show that East Coast is the most taxpayer-friendly train company in terms of premium payments paid back to the Government against subsidy received.

However, Transport Minister Simon Burns has cited East Coast’s comparatively poor punctuality record to back his belief that the private sector will do better although faults such as overhead wire trouble and signal problems are down to NR which has been warned about its performance by regulators.

The best-performing companies in April 2013 were London Overground and Merseyrail, which both ran 96.4 per cent of trains on time.

Apart from the East Coast and Virgin companies, the only other train firm that failed to achieve a punctuality figure of at least 90 per cent last month was First Capital Connect , with 89.7 per cent.