Think YOUR rail journey’s bad? It’s even worse in York and Sheffield

RAIL COMMUTERS in York and Sheffield are among those most likely to be hit by delays on their morning trip to work.
Delays were worst in York and SheffieldDelays were worst in York and Sheffield
Delays were worst in York and Sheffield

Data analysts examined the punctuality of thousands of arrivals over 11 weeks at the 16 busiest stations in the UK, which included York, Sheffield and Leeds in Yorkshire.

York has the third worst odds for commuters arriving on time between 7am and 9am, falling shortly below Birmingham and Manchester.

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On average every two in five (41 per cent) train services arrived late into York’s main station between 7–10am.

They also found train delays progressively get worse every half hour between 7–10am in York, and over half of trains arrive late between 9–10am (53-55 per cent) - around 13 per cent higher than the average across all 16 cities.

The culmination of delays adds around 16 hours to the daily commute over the space of a year - the equivalent of two working days.

More than 3,600 arrivals were analysed in York, with 41.5 per cent running late - adding an average of 3.23 minutes to a journey.

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Sheffield commuters fared only slightly better, with the city ranked fourth worst.

In total, 3,763 arrivals were analysed, with two in five, or 39.7 per cent, running late, adding an average of 1.95 minutes to a journey.

Commuters are the most likely to arrive late between 8.30–9am and 9.30–10am, when over 45 per cent of trains are late.

Of the Yorkshire cities scrutinised by data annalists Fasteroute and the Open Data Institute (ODI), Leeds fared best, ranking 11th out of 16 cities.

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There, 33.6 per cent of trains were late, delayed by an average of 2.35 minutes. In total, 7,466 trains arriving at Leeds were analysed.

The data should be used to target improvements by Arriva Rail and FirstGroup, who were awarded the franchises currently ran by Northern Rail and TransPennine earlier this month, a transport campaign group has said.

James MacColl, Head of Campaigns, Campaign for Better Transport, said: “This data demonstrates the effect that starving Yorkshire of investment in rail has had on commuters. The new Northern Rail and TransPennine Express franchises which will run from April will have to solve these problems, and we’re glad they have committed to putting on new trains and services to redress the balance and catch up with rail services in other parts of the country.”

The group is campaigning for changes to the way train users are compensated for delayed journeys.

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Mr MacColl said: “The system for claiming compensation for train delays is still overly complicated and there is an urgent need to improve consistency and clarity on compensation for rail passengers. We want to see an end to vouchers as a form of reimbursement, agreed targets for compensation being paid out, a single set of compensation arrangements across all passenger services and a timetable for automatic ‘delay-repay’ across the network.

“It is also imperative that rail delays remain within the Consumer Rights Act, and are not excluded from it as the Government is currently consulting on. Only then will passengers’ faith in the compensation scheme be restored.”

Fasteroute said that as the research reveals that delays become longer as the morning goes on, earlier delays could have also affected later services.

It says that if people were to work more flexible hours, they could reduce their exposure to regular delays.

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George Goldberg, co-founder of Fasteroute, said: “Fasteroute empowers rail passengers to improve their journeys. By choosing more reliable trains to travel on, and avoiding those with a history of delays and disruption, passengers can save time and worry less. Over time, data continually collected across the rail network will allow Fasteroute to predict how major incidents will affect rail services, and assist passengers to get to where they need with minimum hassle and inconvenience.”

The ODI used National Rail data for the research, but want passenger number data to be made public so they can fully investigate the impact of delays.

Jeni Tennison, deputy CEO and technical director at ODI, said: “Train delays are inevitable, and our existing rail infrastructure routinely runs at capacity. Bringing this open data closer to the public will inform their daily decision-making, and can in turn, reduce overall delays of services already in operation.

“We urge operators to publish passenger numbers to increase transparency about the impact of delays and monitor whether bringing this data to passengers does influence their commuting behaviour.”

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A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said: “The timetable is our promise to passengers and we never want people to suffer delays or disruption. Train operators and Network Rail are working hard together every day to deliver a better, more punctual railway, and to give people better information when things do go wrong.”