National Rail Trends – April to June 2005 (Quarter 1)
30 September 2005
ORR/39/05
This edition of National Rail Trends covers April – June (quarter 1) of the financial year 2005-2006. The quarterly public performance measure (PPM) figure for quarter 1 is 87.5%, an increase of almost 3 percentage points from the same period the previous year, and the highest quarterly performance for five years. The national moving annual average for PPM at the end of June 2005 was 84.3%, 0.7% up on the year to March 2005.
Other headline results:
- Comparing April – June 2005 with the same period in 2004, 16 out of 24 train operating companies (see notes to editors 4) showed an improvement in performance, of which 2 improved by 10 percentage points or more and a further 5 increased by over 5 percentage points, 7 operators showed a decrease in performance this quarter.
- Complaints per 100,000 journeys in April – June 2005 decreased by 27% compared with the same period the previous year. Complaints for London and SE operators decreased by almost 40%, and for long-distance operators by 25%. Complaints for regional operators increased by 23%.
- All sectors saw growth in total passenger kilometres, total passenger journeys, and total revenue between April – June 2005, and the same quarter in 2004.
- Total freight moved, measured by tonne kilometres, increased by 10.2% in April to June 2005 compared to the same quarter in 2004.
- Between 31 March 2005 and 30 June 2005 the overall average age of rolling stock decreased by over a year, to just over 13.5 years. This particularly reflects the introduction of new rolling stock by London and SE operators.
In July 2005 ORR took over the publication of rail statistics formerly carried out by the Strategic Rail Authority. Today ORR publishes the 20th edition of the quarterly National Rail Trends, the first to be produced since this change.
Key findings in the report are:
Public Performance Measure (Section 2.1)
Comparing April - June 2005 with April – June 2004, the national figure shows an improvement in performance of 2.9 percentage points. Sixteen train operating companies showed an improvement, most notably: South West Trains and Thameslink achieved an increase of over 10 percentage points, and Gatwick Express, Southern, Silverlink, Midland Mainline, GNER, and Virgin West Coast also all showed increases of over 4 percentage points during this time. Seven operators showed a decrease in performance: First Great Western PPM decreased by 7.5 percentage points, whilst ONE (Intercity), Arriva Trains Wales, Merseyrail and Wessex Trains also showed decreases of over 2 percentage points.
At the sector level, the performance of London and SE operators showed the biggest improvement in performance figures, up by 5.1 percentage points to 87.1 percentage points during the peak hours in April – June 2005, and up 4.6 percentage points over the whole day to 89.1%, compared with April – June 2004.
Long-distance operators’ performance increased by 1.1 percentage points, from 80.5% to 81.6%, and regional operators’ performance also increased by 1.1 percentage points, to 86.1%.
A table detailing the performance of individual operators is included at the end of this press notice.
Complaints (Section 2.2)
Complaints per 100,000 journeys between April – June 2005 decreased by 27% compared with the same period the previous year. Over this period, London and SE operators and long-distance operators showed significant decreases in complaints of 39% and 25% respectively, whilst complaints to regional operators increased by 23%.
Rail usage (Section 1)
All sectors saw growth in total passenger kilometres, total passenger journeys, and total passenger revenue between April – June 2005, and the same quarter in 2004.
For long distance operators, passenger kilometres increased by 8.2%, whilst passenger journeys increased by 11.8%. For regional operators, passenger kilometres increased by 3.6% and passenger journeys by 2.3%.
Total passenger revenue, seasonally adjusted and at 2004–05 constant prices increased by 4.2% between April – June 2005 and the same period in 2004.
Freight (Section 3)
Total freight moved increased by 10.2% in April – June 2005 compared with the same quarter in 2004. There was a significant increase of almost 30% in the amount of coal moved over this period.
Freight moved takes into account the net weight (excluding the weight of the locomotive and wagons) of the goods carried (the freight lifted), measured in tonnes and the distance carried. Freight lifted is the mass of goods carried on the network. It excludes the weight of the locomotives and wagons. Unlike freight moved, it takes no account of the distance involved.
Rolling Stock (Section 4.1)
The average (mean) age of rolling stock decreased by just over one year between 31 March and 30 June 2005, to just over 13.5 years.
Public Performance Measure by train operating company
Percentage of trains arriving on time 2005-06 Q1
|
2005-06 Q1 |
2004-05 Q2 |
Year to June 2005 |
Year to 31 March 2005 |
|
| Long distance operators | ||||
| First Great Western | 74.6 | 82.1 | 77.8 | 79.6 |
| Great North Eastern Railwayp | 83.8 | 78.4 | 78.8 | 77.5 |
| Midland Mainline | 93.5 | 85.5 | 90.3 | 88.3 |
| ONE (InterCity) | 77.7 | 80.9 | 83.2 | 84.3 |
| Virgin CrossCountry | 81.5 | 80.2 | 78.1 | 77.8 |
| Virgin West Coast | 80.8 | 76.3 | 73.6 | 72.1 |
|
Sector Level
|
81.6 | 80.5 | 79.4 | 79.1 |
| London and SE operators - all day | ||||
| c2c | 94.7 | 93.1 | 93.6 | 93.2 |
| Chiltern Railways | 93.8 | 93.4 | 92.4 | 92.5 |
| First Great Western Link | 83.2 | 84.6 | 82.5 | 82.9 |
| ONE | 87.9 | 89.1 | 88.7 | 89.0 |
| Silverlink | 90.6 | 83.0 | 86.1 | 84.2 |
| South Eastern Trains | 89.3 | 86.5 | 84.9 | 84.2 |
| South West Trains | 90.4 | 78.2 | 84.5 | 81.4 |
| Southern | 88.7 | 81.8 | 83.5 | 81.8 |
| Thameslink | 89.4 | 79.4 | 86.3 | 83.9 |
| WAGN | 91.0 | 89.9 | 89.6 | 89.3 |
|
Sector level
|
89.1 | 84.5 | 85.9 | 84.7 |
| London and SE operators - peak | ||||
| c2c | 96.2 | 91.9 | 93.8 | 92.7 |
| Chiltern Railways | 90.2 | 92.5 | 89.7 | 90.3 |
| First Great Western Link | 73.1 | 80.7 | 72.1 | 73.9 |
| ONE | 84.9 | 86.4 | 86.1 | 86.7 |
| Silverlink | 92.7 | 85.0 | 88.0 | 86.1 |
| South Eastern Trains | 87.6 | 82.8 | 81.3 | 80.1 |
| South West Trains | 87.7 | 75.4 | 81.4 | 78.3 |
| Southern | 86.2 | 78.5 | 79.9 | 77.9 |
| Thameslink | 88.1 | 71.7 | 82.5 | 78.5 |
| WAGN | 89.7 | 87.9 | 87.7 | 87.2 |
|
Sector level
|
87.1 | 82.0 | 83.1 | 81.9 |
| Regional operators | ||||
| Arriva Trains Wales | 80.2 | 82.5 | 80.2 | 80.8 |
| Central Trains | 80.1 | 78.0 | 73.7 | 73.1 |
| Gatwick Express | 91.7 | 82.2 | 87.1 | 84.7 |
| Island Line | 98.4 | 97.5 | 97.5 | 97.3 |
| Merseyrail | 92.4 | 95.0 | 93.5 | 94.2 |
| Northern Rail* | 88.5 | - | - | - |
| First ScotRail | 87.4 | 86.1 | 83.5 | 83.1 |
| TPE | 80.3 | 77.4 | 75.3 | 74.6 |
| Wessex Trains | 84.7 | 86.9 | 84.9 | 85.4 |
|
Sector level
|
86.1 | 85.0 | 83.0 | 82.7 |
|
National Level
|
87.5 | 84.5 | 84.3 |
83.6 |
| * Northern Rail began operations on 12 December 2004 and combined the services formerly operated by First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern. | ||||
| p Provisional | ||||
Notes for editors
- This edition of National Rail Trends covers the period 1 April 2005 to 30 June 2005, and is available from the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/253.pdf. It provides trend data on a range of industry-wide indicators including key figures on rail usage and freight.
- Earlier editions of National Rail Trends and its predecessor On Track were the responsibility of the Strategic Rail Authority; these are now available on the ORR website. The Yearbook 2004-2005 edition, published in June by the SRA, will be updated shortly to take into account a number of minor revisions and corrections and will be available on this website.
- The Public Performance Measure (PPM) combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure. PPM replaced the Passenger’s Charter as the main means of measuring passenger train performance. PPM is the percentage of trains “on time” compared to the total number of trains planned, where ‘on time’ means within five minutes of the scheduled arrival time for London and the South East (SE) and for regional operators, and ten minutes for long-distance operators.There are currently a total of 24 train operating companies running passenger rail services in Britain, however it is not possible to make annual PPM comparisons for Northern Rail because the franchise was only formed in December 2004.
- There have been a number of changes in the methodology used to produce the tables in National Rail Trends that affect the trend data. Most notably, a change in methodology occurred in the calculation of passenger kilometres and passenger journeys since quarter 3 of 2004-05. Data after this period are provisional while the methodology is revised in order to accurately reflect new products in the London marketplace. For this reason it is not possible to make accurate quarterly comparisons with figures prior to this for London and SE operators, or for overall total passenger kilometres/journeys. Comparisons by ticket type are also not possible.
- Quarterly figures are based on the following periods:
- Quarter 1 – April to June
- Quarter 2 – July to September
- Quarter 3 – October to December
- Quarter 4 – January to March
- Figures in National Rail Trends apply only to franchised operators (plus Merseyrail, operated under a concession arrangement between Merseytravel and the operator). National Rail Trends includes data that is provisional and subject to revision in the light of new information.
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