With over nine out ten trains running on time, punctuality across the Greater Anglia network has improved for a fifth consecutive month according to their latest figures.
In April 2019 93.07% of their services ran on schedule.
This continues an upward trend in punctuality since the beginning of the year.
On the Marks Tey – Sudbury branch line, their best performance was achieved, with 98.1% of the trains on time.
The Norwich – Sheringham line came second with 97.6%, the London – Harwich line with 96.5%, the Norwich – Lowestoft with 95.9%, the London – Colchester / Clacton-on-Sea / Walton-on-the-Naze with 95.8%, and the Norwich – Great Yarmouth line with 95.3%.
Punctuality for the whole Greater Anglia network was 93.07% this period, the highest since September 2013.
With performance on the Great Eastern Mainline between London Liverpool Street and Essex and Suffolk also hitting a new high of 95.8%.
The Greater Anglia are also at the lowest ever recorded number of delays. Despite the train operator running more trains, which carry more passengers than ever and are increasingly ageing.
Other notable results include punctuality on the Norwich – Cambridge line, which improved by 8.4% to 86.8% due to the removal of a speed restriction on the line relating to track condition, which had been the primary cause of delays on the route.
On the West Anglia route, between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, performance improved to 89.85%, up from 85.7% at the beginning of the year, this is partially as a result of Greater Anglia adjusting stopping patterns of trains to prevent persistent delays.
Additional initiatives Network Rail is undertaking on the West Anglia route are expected to further increase punctuality in the coming months.
Overall annual average punctuality across Greater Anglia is now 88.1%, higher than the national average of 86.1%.
The train operator is aiming to raise that figure to 90% and then 93% by the end of its franchise.
What did the officials have to say?
Jay Thompson, Greater Anglia train service delivery director, said:
“We know how important a consistent, reliable service is for our customers so this is really great news for them.
“Many of our morning and evening peaks services are now regularly operating at 100 per cent punctuality, which is great news for the thousands of commuters who travel with us every day.
“But there is still more we can do and we are carefully monitoring all of our services, looking at what causes every single minute of delay and how to prevent a similar delay another time.
“We have also set up a joint performance improvement taskforce with Network Rail to look in detail at the causes of delays and we are bringing in a team of external consultants to review our approach to see how we can improve further still.”
“The introduction of our brand-new fleet of trains will also help to make the service more resilient, as the current eight different types of train will be replaced with just three types, making them easier to maintain.”
Steve Hooker, Network Rail Anglia chief operating officer said:
“We recently introduced a new performance improvement campaign called Every Second Counts, which focuses on the top eight causes of delay, and put aside a £10m booster fund to tackle these key areas.
“The early results are promising as shown by the improved punctuality, but we are not complacent and will continue to seek more ways to improve reliability for our passengers. We're working harder and in smarter ways with Greater Anglia to improve train punctuality and make journeys better for everyone.”
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Should rename Greater Anglia to Lesser Anglia or whatever they should be called. I don’t seem why that the train operator wants to improve punctuality on most of their services. They are just as bad as c2c and other rail operators who have failed to provide better rail services for commuters.
It’s a disgrace that our railways has been taken over by foreign rail companies that have done much better in other countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other European countries that have better railways.
Greater Anglia really needs to think properly if they want to improve their services and not cause such misery to passengers who want better railway services in the East of England and the same goes with other rail franchises in the UK.
Hasn’t made passengers happy with bus replacements including when Network Rail are replacing overhead wires on the Southend Victoria line which has shut for 9 days.