Rail Partners chief executive, Andy Bagnall, said:
‘The latest Office of Rail and Road data for the first quarter of this year shows performance for passengers is still not where it should be.
‘This data underlines the fact that changing who runs the trains won’t automatically fix the problems that the railway is facing. Four out of ten train miles are already provided by publicly owned operators, and they face the same performance challenges as private operators.
‘Looking at total cancellations, four of the eight least reliable train companies were publicly operated, and the infrastructure manager, Network Rail — publicly owned since 2002 — was responsible for over 60 per cent of delay minutes. By comparison, the data shows the five most punctual operators over the same time period were all privately operated.
‘This evidence does not suggest that banning the use of contracted operators before working out the details of wider rail reform will improve services for passengers.’
Notes to editors
- ORR's passenger rail performance data for the last quarter is available here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/ocib4lie/performance_stats_release_2024-25_q1.pdf
- Publicly owned rail companies continue to be the most prolific users of p-coding (‘pre-cancellations’): https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/ocib4lie/performance_stats_release_2024-25_q1.pdf (pg 16, figure 4.5)
- In January 2023, ORR wrote to train operating companies outlining the need to change how they record ‘pre-cancellations’ and to introduce a more passenger-friendly and transparent way of working when making late changes to services: http://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/regulator-tells-rail-industry-ensure-cancellation-statistics-match-passenger-experience
