Rail Partners’ chief executive, Andy Bagnall, said:
‘The latest Office of Rail and Road data shows public and private train companies continue to face the same performance challenges. Simply changing who runs the trains won’t deliver more reliable services for passengers.
‘The key to improving performance and holding down fares is restoring the railway to financial sustainability. It is counter intuitive to start removing private sector operators from the system, with their track record of delivering growth to reduce subsidy, when government has not yet set out the detail of how it intends to create a more reliable and affordable experience for passengers.’
Notes to editors
- ORR's passenger rail performance data for the last quarter is available here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/zvwf0eux/performance_stats_release_2024-25_q2.pdf
- Last week, the Department for Transport published its timeline for bringing train companies back into public ownership, putting the Government in charge of fixing the railways. Today's data shows a mixed picture for public and private operators. Punctuality has declined for almost all operators showing systemic problems rather than ownership are the root cause.
- Northern and LNER, in the public sector for four years and six years respectively, are the two least reliable train operators when including all cancellations. LNER's quarterly reliability has deteriorated more than any other operator year on year.
- Northern has been in public hands for four years and it had the highest cancellation rates of any train operator, and its punctuality and reliability also declined over the last year.
- The three operators that government plans to nationalise next year were all among the ten most punctual operators for the last quarter.
Rail Partners exists to make the railway better by harnessing the expertise and creativity of private sector operators for the benefit of those who use the railway, passengers and freight customers, and those who pay for it, including taxpayers.
Rail Partners provides advocacy and policy solutions for its private sector passenger owning group and freight company members. Rail Partners additionally provides technical services to train operating companies in both the public and private sectors.
