The latest figures for Greater Anglia reveal an increase in trains running on time when compared to 2021
The latest Passenger Rail Performance results published by the Office of Rail and Road record and measure rail punctuality from April to June 2022 via the On Time measure which bases its data on trains arriving early or within a minute of their expected arrival time for each station on a route.
Greater Anglia who won a ‘Golden Whistle' award for being the most punctual long distant rail operator for 2021, saw its On Time figures come in at 87.4% of trains arriving On Time for the period measures which is up by 0.9% on the same period in 2021.
Improvements in reliability have also seen the rail operator need to make 1.5% fewer cancellations than in the same period during 2021.
The only rail operators nationally to report better punctuality than Greater Anglia were Transport for London/the Elizabeth Line and for better reliability only Chiltern Railway were better.
The rail industry is making a steady move over to On-Time figures from the Public Performance Measure which only records trains arriving within five minutes of the expected arrival time.
2021 Has seen Greater Anglia break records for punctuality using Public Performance Measure on its entire network with its best ever annual average punctuality recording being 94.81% which was improved from 92.27% in 2020. The rail operator's Intercity trains have also seen an annual average punctuality result of 94.82% which is also improved from 91.56% in 2020. Following these impressive results, the rail operator went on to smash its records once again with an annual punctuality figure of 95.03% in February this year.
Greater Anglia's Head of Performance and Planning, Keith Palmer, said: “It's really encouraging to see that our On Time punctuality figures have been improving as the industry moves closer to a transition to this measure.
“Across the business, teams have been working hard to continue to run a reliable, punctual service and our more reliable new train fleet, closer partnership working with Network Rail and other key suppliers and recent infrastructure upgrades are all helping to deliver continued improvements for rail passengers in the region.”
Greater Anglia has maintained a key focus on improving performance by undertaking a number of vital infrastructure upgrades over the last few years and its new fleet of trains are proving to be exceptional, driving a noted step-change for punctuality and reliability.
The rail operator's new trains feature faster acceleration and braking which has had a positive impact on both punctuality and service resilience. Autumn 2021 saw Greater Anglia achieve its greatest autumn punctuality scores thanks to the new train's ability to cope with the many challenges brought about by leaf fall season including slippery tracks.
Working together, Greater Anglia and Network Rail have created a new set of plans which focus on train and infrastructure performance and include planning for extreme weather conditions as well as for recovering speedily from any possible from service disruption.
The Class 720/1 were going to be 10-Car but Greater Anglia reduced it to 5-Car to work with the Class 720/5 trains that 89 Class 720/5 units are being built and most of the Class 720 trains are already in service on Greater Anglia. With most of the existing rolling stocks gone for scrap and some cascaded and stored elsewhere.