Northern and Transpennine see improvements in train punctuality in 2019

The Office for Road and Rail today released statistics which compare the performance of different rail companies over the past year.

In 2019-20, 41 per cent of Transpennine Express services arrived at stations within a minute of their scheduled calling time - up four per cent from the previous year.

For Northern, the figure was 55.3 per cent - a 2.3 per cent increase.

Colin Bamford: The economic case for renationalising our railwaysAnalysis of the figures by Rota Cloud found that several Yorkshire stations were among the worst in the country for late-running services.

Wakefield Westgate was the second-worst behind Lancaster, with 63 per cent of trains due to call there arriving late.

Meadowhall, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Wakefield Kirkgate and York were also in the bottom 20.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps demanded that the 2020 data classed trains as 'on time' only if they were no more than a minute of late. In previous years, there had been wriggle room of up to 10 minutes before a service was recorded as 'late'.

Overall, Britain's trains across the network had a punctuality rate of 65.1 per cent.

However, many of the improvements are down to more trains being added to the timetable and a rise in data recording.

Mr Shapps tweeted: "Last year I asked for trains to be regarded as 'on time' only when they arrive to the minute (not five or 10 mins late as per previous measure).

"Today's data shows movement in the right direction, but there's plenty more to do. Big changes are coming."

The Department for Transport will set out reforms of the railways in a white paper, responding to recommendations of the Government-commissioned Rail Review led by former British Airways boss Keith Williams.

This is why stripping Northern of its franchise won't solve Yorkshire's rail issuesFour operators saw a decline in punctuality last year - Avanti West Coast (formerly Virgin Trains), Caledonian Sleeper, West Midlands Trains and Transport for Wales.

Services on routes operated by Northern will be brought under public control on March 1 amid major punctuality and reliability problems.

Transpennine Express has been set a target by Transport for the North to significantly improve performance by the end of next month.