Wednesday the 2nd of October saw The Office of Rail and Road publish its analysis of Network Rail‘s provision in train service performance.

The report reveals that 70.2% of trains arrived on time during September 2022 which is a reduction when compared to 72.6% in April 2022. The regulator also found that more train cancellations are now taking place when compared to the start of this financial year and that national freight performance has descended to its lowest level in five years.

The Office of Rail and Road is aware that some issues are out of Network Rail’s controls such as the effects of extreme weather, problems with staffing and industrial action.

Network Rail has made good progress in several areas such as building resilience to extreme weather events and steps to reduce fatalities, trespass and theft which the regulator expects progress to be ongoing.

Delays which are attributed to Network Rail have seen increases across all five of its regions and the regulator has recommended five areas which can and must be improved by Network Rail.

The Wales and Western region sees poor performance partially because of the poor reliability of the rail infrastructure, especially track assets. The Office of Rail and Road has asked the region to create an improvement plan and to undertake active monitoring of its delivery. The regulator will take steps if the planned improvements are not carried out.

The North West and Central region sees track asset reliability as requiring improvement. The Eastern region also requires improvement in the durability of overhead lines in order to stop failure which leads to disruption for both passengers and freight.

The Thameslink ‘core’ which carries trains across north and south London for the Southern region requires track renewal after a number of infrastructure failures over the summer which saw large amounts of significant incidents, cancellations and delays.

Improvement plans in Scotland also need to keep moving forward in order to build levels of performance back up to acceptable standards.

ORR Chief Executive John Larkinson said: “Passengers and freight are suffering from poor train performance, with issues extending across all of Network Rail’s regions.

“There are of course factors beyond Network Rail’s control to delivering good train performance, including further industrial action and potential extreme weather events.

“And there are areas such as trespass and theft where Network Rail has worked hard to reduce delays. But it can nevertheless do more.

“It is essential that the company now delivers on the specific interventions we have set out today. We will continue to scrutinise delivery and will take further action if there is insufficient progress.”