Virgin Trains left standing on punctuality
WEST Coast Main Line operator Virgin Trains was the worst performing rail company in terms of punctuality during April, latest figures have shown.
The company, which operates services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston, languishes at the bottom of the table of 19 operators with a PPM rate of 85.8%.
PPM is defined as a percentage measure of passenger trains arriving on time at their scheduled destination. For long distance trains ‘on time’ is within 10 minutes of the timetable while for shorter journeys the threshold drops to five minutes.
Network Rail said the UK average PPM in April was 92.9% – one of the best performing months on record, although slightly down on the 94% rate from the same month last year.
London Overground and c2c shared the best rates at 96.3%, while Virgin’s rival on the Birmingham to London routes, Chiltern Railways achieved a 94.5% rate. London Midland was slightly below average at 91.1% while the East Anglia franchise operated by Birmingham based transport group National Express achieved 92.5%.
Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services at Network Rail, said: “A good start to the year sees train performance continue to deliver consistently high levels of punctuality. Our focus remains as we, and the train operators, endeavour to deliver a high performing and reliable railway for almost four million daily users.”
