National Rail Trends – July - September 2005 (Quarter 2)

19 December 2005
ORR/48/05

This edition covers July - September (quarter 2) of the financial year 2005-2006. The quarterly public performance measure (PPM) figure for quarter 2 is 87% (see notes to editors 4) an increase of just under 4 percentage points from the same quarter the previous year. The national moving annual average for PPM at the end of September 2005 was 85.3%, 1 percentage point up on the year to June 2005.

Other headline results:

Comparing July - September 2005 with the same period in 2004, 16 out of 24 train operating companies showed an improvement in PPM, of which 2 improved by more than 10 percentage points 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 July - September 2005 for long-distance operators decreased by 5.8% but for regional operators it increased by 5% (see notes to editors 5);
All sectors saw growth in total passenger revenue in July - September 2005, compared with the same quarter in 2004;
Long distance and regional operators both experienced growth in total passenger journeys and total passenger kilometres in July - September 2005, compared with the same quarter in 2004 (see notes to editors 5);
Total freight moved increased by 4.5% in July - September 2005 compared with the same quarter in 2004; and
Between 30th June 2005 and 30th September the overall average age of rolling stock decreased by almost 7 months, to just under 13 years. This particularly reflects the introduction of new rolling stock by London and South East operators.

Key findings in the report are:

Public Performance Measure (Section 2.1)

Comparing July - September 2005 with July - September 2004, the national figure shows an improvement in performance of 3.7 percentage points. Sixteen train operating companies showed an improvement. South West Trains and Virgin West Coast achieved an increase of over 10 percentage points. Gatwick Express, Southern, Silverlink, Central Trains, and Virgin CrossCountry all showed increases of over 5 percentage points during this time. Seven operators showed a decrease in performance: ONE (Intercity) PPM decreased by 6.2 percentage points, whilst Chiltern and First Great Western 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 4.1 percentage points (compared with July - September 2004) to 88.5% over the whole day and up 2.6 percentage points during the peak hours to 86.5%. Long-distance operators’ performance increased by 3.6 percentage points, from 79% to 82.6%, and regional operators’ performance increased by 3.4 percentage points to 85.7%. 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 for long distance operators between July - September 2005 decreased by 5.8% compared with the same period the previous year. In contrast the complaints rate for regional operators increased by 5% (see notes to editors 5).

Rail usage (Section 1)

All sectors saw growth in total passenger revenue in July - September 2005, compared with the same quarter in 2004. Total passenger revenue, seasonally adjusted and at 2004-05 constant prices increased by 3.7% between July – September 2005 and the same period in 2004.

Between July - September 2005, and the same quarter in 2004 long distance operators experienced a growth in passenger kilometres of 0.6%, whilst passenger journeys increased by 4.4%. For regional operators, passenger kilometres increased by 5.7% and passenger journeys by 9.5%. Due to a change in methodology that occurred after 2004-05 quarter 3 it is not possible to make accurate quarterly comparisons for London and South East operators between July - September 2005, and the same quarter in 2004 (see notes to editors 5).

Freight (Section 3)

Total freight moved increased by 4.5% in July - September 2005 compared with the same quarter in 2004. There was a significant increase of almost 24% in the amount of coal moved measured in tonne-kilometres over this period. However total freight lifted measured in tonnes decreased by 2.5% over this period.

Rolling Stock (Section 4.1)

The average (mean) age of rolling stock decreased by just under 7 months between 30 June and 30 September 2005, to just under 13 years.

Public Performance Measure by train operating company

Percentage of trains arriving on time 2005-06 Q2

	2005-06 Q2	2004-05 Q2	Year to September 2005	Year to 30 June 2005
Long distance operators
First Great Western	77.3	81.2	76.8	77.8
Great North Eastern Railway	81.4	76.6	80.0	78.8
Midland Mainline	90.6	85.6	91.7	90.3
ONE (InterCity)	81.8	88.0	81.6	83.2
Virgin CrossCountry	83.0	75.1	80.1	78.1
Virgin West Coast	82.9	71.9	76.3	73.6
Sector Level	82.6	79.0	80.4	79.4

London and SE operators all day
c2c	94.1	93.3	93.8	93.6
Chiltern Railways	88.9	91.3	91.8	92.4
First Great Western Link	84.0	82.4	83.0	82.5
ONE	87.9	89.3	88.4	88.7
Silverlink	88.3	80.8	87.9	86.1
South Eastern Trains	88.4	85.1	85.7	84.9
South West Trains	90.8	80.3	87.2	84.5
Southern	89.1	82.2	85.3	83.5
Thameslink	84.2	81.6	87.0	86.3
WAGN	89.4	90.7	89.2	89.6
Sector Level	88.5	84.4	86.9	85.9

London and SE operators - peak
c2c	94.7	92.3	94.4	93.8
Chiltern Railways	85.8	90.1	88.8	89.7
First Great Western Link	75.2	76.0	71.9	72.1
ONE	87.7	87.4	86.1	86.1
Silverlink	90.9	87.1	88.9	88.0
South Eastern Trains	84.8	83.4	81.7	81.3
South West Trains	89.3	79.7	83.9	81.4
Southern	86.6	82.4	81.0	79.9
Thameslink	78.3	79/2	82.3	82.5
WAGN	88.4	88.6	87.6	87.7
Sector Level	86.5	83.9	83.8	83.1

Regional operators
Arriva Trains Wales	80.4	81.1	80.1	80.2
Central Trains	79.1	73.0	75.4	73.7
Gatwick Express	91.4	86.1	88.5	87.1
Island Line	95.7	95.7	97.5	97.5
Merseyrail	92.8	93.4	93.4	93.5
Northern Rail*	87.7	-	-	-
First ScotRail	87.2	82.8	84.6	83.5
TPE	78.4	74.9	76.2	75.3
Wessex Trains	86.1	85.2	85.1	84.9
Sector Level	85.7	82.2	83.0	83.0

*Northern Rail began operations on 12 December 2004 and combined the services formerly operated by First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern.

Notes for editors:

In July 2005 ORR took over the rail statistics function, formerly provided by the Strategic Rail Authority. Today ORR publishes the 21st edition of the quarterly National Rail Trends, the second to be produced since this reorganisation.
This edition of National Rail Trends covers the period 1 July 2005 to 30 September 2005, and is available from the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/265.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, has been updated to take into account a number of minor revisions and corrections – the revised document is available on ORR’s 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.
5. 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 for the London and SE sector after quarter 3 of 2004-05. Data after this quarter are provisional while the methodology is revised in order to reflect accurately 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. In addition the complaints series is based on a rate per 100,000 journeys. Therefore it is also not possible to make accurate quarterly comparisons with figures prior to quarter 3 of 2004-05 with the complaints data for London and SE operators and the overall total complaints rate.
6. 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.
7. 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
8. 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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