National Rail Trends 2005–06 yearbook (April 2005 to March 2006)
05 July 2006
ORR/18/06
The National Rail Trends yearbook, covering the period April 2005 to March 2006, was published today by ORR. It shows the highest annual percentage of trains on time since 1999-00 – 86.4%. The Public Performance Measure (PPM) figure for Quarter 4 was 89.8%, an increase of 3.6 percentage points on the same quarter in 2004-05. The Moving Annual Average for PPM at the end of March 2006 was 86.4%.
Comparing 2005-06 with 2004-05
- 17 out of the 24 franchised train operating companies showed an improvement in PPM, of which one (Virgin West Coast) improved by around 11 percentage points and a further nine increased by over five percentage points. Six operators showed a decrease in performance, and the PPM for one operator was unchanged, over this period.
- Complaints per 100,000 journeys increased by 6% compared to last year.
- Crowding levels on peak London commuters services in 2005 were the same as in 2004. 2.9% of passengers were in excess of capacity, with 4.0% above capacity in morning peak hours and 1.6% in evening peak hours.
- Between 2004-05 and 2005-06, total passenger kilometres and total passenger journeys increased by 3.5% and 3.6% respectively. Total passenger revenue increased by 8%.
- Total freight moved increased by 7.5% compared to last year and is now at 22.1 billion net tonne kilometres.
- Fares increased by 5.8% over the period January 2005 to January 2006.
Comparing 2005-06 Q4 with 2004-05 Q4
- 18 train operating companies showed an improvement in PPM, whilst four operators showed a decrease in performance and one was unchanged when compared to the same quarter the previous year. The PPM data for the remaining operator, ONE, are split into Long distance and London and South East services, with the former showing an increase in PPM over this period and the latter displaying a decrease.
- Between 2004-05 Q4 and 2005-06 Q4 the number of complaints per 100,000 journeys decreased by 12.1% for Long Distance operators. Regional operators showed an increase of 4.6% and complaints for operators in London and the South East increased by 7.7%. The overall complaints figure remained at 74 complaints per 100,000 journeys.
- All sectors saw growth in total passenger revenue, kilometres and journeys compared to January-March 2005.
- Total freight moved in 2005-06 Q4 was 5.7 billion net tonne kilometres, which represents an increase of almost 8% over the same quarter last year.
Key points in the report are:
Public Performance Measure (PPM) (Section 2.1)
In January-March 2006 the national PPM figure was 89.8%, an improvement of 3.6 percentage points on January-March 2005. At the train operators’ level, 18 train operating companies showed an improvement over this period, with Virgin West Coast achieving an increase of almost 15 percentage points. Central Trains, Great Northern Eastern Railway, TransPennine Express and Southern all showed increases of over six percentage points.
Four operators showed a decrease in PPM between 2004-05 quarter 4 and 2005-06 quarter 4. In the Long distance sector, the PPM for First Great Western decreased by one percentage point over this period. In the London and South East sector the PPM for c2c decreased by around one percentage point, whilst the PPM for Merseyrail decreased by 1.3 percentage points, and the PPM for Island Line decreased by half a percentage point.
At the sector level, Long distance operators showed the largest improvement in PPM, up by 5.7 percentage points (compared to January-March 2005) to 87%. The PPM of Regional operators increased by 4.4 percentage points to 89%. London and South East operators’ PPM increased by 2.8 percentage points to 90.8% over the whole day and also increased by 3.8 percentage points during peak hours to 87.7%.
Complaints (Section 2.2)
Compared to last year, complaints for London and South East operators and Regional operators in 2005-06 increased by 32% and 11% respectively, whilst those for Long distance operators decreased by around 14%.
Complaints per 100,000 journeys for Long distance operators in January-March 2006 were 12% lower than the same quarter in 2005. In contrast the complaints rates for London and South East operators and Regional operators increased by 8% and 5% respectively over the same period.
National Rail Enquiry Service (Section 2.3)
In 2005–06 The National Rail Enquiry Service (NRES) took 35 million calls, 27% fewer than in 2004–05. NRES took 7.2 million calls in January-March 2006, 32% less than the same quarter in 2005.
Rail usage (Section 1)
Between 2004-05 and 2005-06, Long Distance operators showed the greatest percentage increase in passenger kilometres (6.4%), passenger journeys (6.9%) and passenger revenue (9.8%). At the national level, revenue per passenger kilometre increased by 4.4% and revenue per passenger journey increased by 4.3% between 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Between 2004-05 and 2005-06, timetabled train kilometres increased by 2.1% for Regional operators and by 1.5% for London and South East operators, whilst it decreased by 1.6% for the Long Distance operators over the same period.
All sectors saw growth in total passenger revenue in January-March 2006 compared to the same quarter in 2005. The moving annual average for total passenger revenue, at 2005-06 constant prices, increased by 5.8%. Between January-March 2005 and the same quarter in 2006, long distance operators’ passenger kilometres and journeys increased by 10.7% and 9.0% respectively. For regional operators, passenger kilometres increased by around 6% and passenger journeys by around 8%. In the London and South East sector both passenger kilometres and passenger journeys increased slightly, by 0.1%. Revenue per passenger kilometre increased by 5.7% between 2004-05 Q4 and 2005-06 Q4, whilst the revenue per journey increased by 7.6% over the same period.
Overall, timetabled train kilometres decreased by 1.2% between 2004-05 quarter 4 and 2005-06 quarter 4.
Freight (Section 3)
Total freight moved increased by 7.5% between 2004-05 and 2005-06. The greatest commodity percentage increase between that period was for coal moved, which increased by nearly 23%. 104 million tonnes of freight were lifted in 2005-06, 2% more than in 2004-05. The number of freight train movements increased by 19.3% between 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Total freight moved increased by almost 8% between January-March 2005 and January-March 2006. There was an increase of 19% in the amount of Oil and Petroleum moved (measured in tonne-kilometres) over this period. Total freight lifted, measured in tonnes, increased by more than 4% over the same period.
National Passenger Survey (Section 4)
At the national level the percentage of passengers satisfied with their journey overall was unchanged between Autumn 2005 and Spring 2006, and is still at the highest level ever recorded by the National Passenger Survey (NPS). Four in five passengers (80%) are very or fairly satisfied with their journey overall. This compares to 80% in Autumn 2005 and 77% in Spring 2005.
This edition includes data for Heathrow Express for the first time, and shows that it has achieved the second highest operator rating for overall satisfaction at 90%. Merseyrail, Virgin West Coast, Island Line and GNER also received a satisfaction rating of 90%. Gatwick Express achieved the highest rating at 94%.
The lowest ratings for overall satisfaction were given to ONE (71%), Thameslink (74%), First Great Western Link (76%), South Eastern Trains (77%), and First Great Western (77%).
Fares Price Index (Section 5)
Between January 2005 and January 2006 regulated rail fares increased by 4.1% whilst the overall fares increase was 5.8% over the same period.
Rolling Stock (Section 6.1)
The average (mean) age of rolling stock increased by almost 3 months over the period 31 December 2005 to 31 March 2006, and is currently at 13.2 years.
Government Support and Subsidy (Section 6.2)
Government support (including PTE grants) to the rail industry increased from £3.8 billion in 2004-05 to £4.6 billion in 2005-06.
Investment in the rail industry (Section 6.4)
£3.7 billion was invested in the rail industry in 2005-06, which is down from £5.5 billion in 2004-05.
Regional usage profiles (Section 7)
In 2004-05 71% of all journeys either started or ended in the London or South East regions. Between 1995-96 and 2004-05 Yorkshire and the Humber (62%) and the East Midlands (60%) showed the greatest percentage increases in passenger journeys travelling to, from or within a region. Scotland (92%), the North West (69%) and Wales (66%) are the regions that have the most passenger journeys entirely within a region.
Public Performance Measure by train operating company
Percentage of trains arriving on time 2005-06 Q4
|
2005-06 Q4 |
2004-05 Q4 |
MAA* to 31 March 2006 |
MAA* to 30 December 2005 |
|
| Long distance operators | ||||
| First Great Western | 78.6 | 79.6 | 74.5 | 74.7 |
| Great North Eastern Railway | 88.4 | 79.2 | 83.5 | 81.2 |
| Midland Mainline | 96.1 | 92.9 | 92.5 | 91.8 |
| ONE (InterCity) | 85.5 | 83.3 | 80.9 | 80.4 |
| Virgin Cross Country | 86.4 | 82.7 | 80.9 | 80 |
| Virgin West Coast | 89.3 | 74.7 | 83.5 | 79.9 |
| Sector Level | 87 | 81.3 | 82.2 | 80.8 |
| London and SE operators - all day | ||||
| c2c | 93.1 | 94 | 92.9 | 93.1 |
| Chiltern Railways | 93.9 | 93.9 | 91.8 | 91.8 |
| First Great Western Link | 86.6 | 84.2 | 83.5 | 82.9 |
| ONE | 89.8 | 90.8 | 87 | 87.2 |
| Silverlink | 92.4 | 89.7 | 90 | 89.3 |
| South Eastern Trains | 90 | 84.5 | 86.7 | 85.3 |
| South West Trains | 92.2 | 90 | 89.6 | 89.1 |
| Southern | 90.9 | 84.8 | 88.1 | 86.6 |
| Thameslink | 90.5 | 89.6 | 86.2 | 85.9 |
| WAGN | 92.7 | 90 | 89.5 | 88.8 |
| Sector Level | 90.8 | 88 | 87.9 | 87.2 |
| London and SE operators - peak | ||||
| c2c | 93.3 | 94.3 | 93.7 | 93.9 |
| Chiltern Railways | 92.6 | 91.3 | 89.1 | 88.7 |
| First Great Western Link | 76.7 | 70.1 | 72.1 | 70.5 |
| ONE | 85.4 | 88.9 | 83.6 | 84.4 |
| Silverlink | 94.3 | 90.2 | 92.2 | 91.2 |
| South Eastern Trains | 85.8 | 78.9 | 82.6 | 80.9 |
| South West Trains | 89.5 | 85.8 | 87.1 | 86.1 |
| Southern | 88.5 | 78.4 | 84.7 | 82.2 |
| Thameslink | 85.1 | 85 | 81.4 | 81.3 |
| WAGN | 90.8 | 87.9 | 87.8 | 87 |
| Sector Level | 87.7 | 83.9 | 84.8 | 83.9 |
| Regional operators | ||||
| Arriva Trains Wales | 88.4 | 82.6 | 81.4 | 79.8 |
| Central Trains | 85.1 | 74.6 | 79.1 | 76.6 |
| First Scotrail | 89.5 | 83.7 | 85.8 | 84.4 |
| Gatwick Express | 92.6 | 87.1 | 91 | 89.7 |
| Island Line | 97.8 | 98.3 | 97.4 | 97.6 |
| Merseyrail | 93.3 | 94.7 | 92.2 | 92.5 |
| Northern Rail | 89.4 | 87.3 | 86.5 | 86.1 |
| TPE | 87.3 | 78.5 | 79.3 | 77.4 |
| Wessex Trains | 89.4 | 86.6 | 85.2 | 84.5 |
| Sector Level | 89 | 84.6 | 85 | 83.9 |
| National Level | 89.8 | 86.2 | 86.4 | 85.5 |
| Non-franchised operator | ||||
| Hull Trains | 94.8 | 90.7 | 91.3 | 90.3 |
* MAA = Moving Annual Average
Notes to editors
- In July 2005 ORR took over the rail statistics function, formerly provided by the Strategic Rail Authority. Today ORR publishes the 23rd edition of the quarterly National Rail Trends, and the third to be published in the end of year compendium, or yearbook format.
- This edition of National Rail Trends covers the annual period April 2005 to March 2006, as well as the quarterly period, January to March (Quarter 4) of the financial year 2005-06 and is available from the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/294.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 http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk
- Changes to the publication:
Following the review of National Rail trends (http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/nrtrev.pdf), the changes below have been made to the analysis/presentation within this edition: - Presentation
-Some of the data tables have been reviewed to provide an appropriate number of significant decimal places
-NRT now includes a one-page executive summary of key results
-Electronic distribution of the excel tables is now available on the ORR website at http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.129
-A contact point has been provided for any comments or questions regarding this or previous editions of NRT - Rail usage
-Passenger volume and revenue tables are no longer seasonally adjusted. Instead we have made use of a Moving Annual Average (MAA) statistic
-A new table has been added which provides data on revenue per kilometre and revenue per operating journey on a quarterly and annual basis
-Explanation on journeys datasets in LENNON has been provided - Public Performance Measure (PPM)
-A Moving Annual Average (MAA) statistic has been added to Table 1.2a - Average age of rolling stock
-Included a graphical representation of Average age of rolling stock - Infrastructure
-The infrastructure table now provides more information on series breaks - Employment data
-Train Operating Company (TOC) employment data has been included for the first time.
More recommendations from the NRT review will be implemented in due course. - 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 that run ‘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 South East and Regional operators, and ten minutes for Long distance operators. There are currently a total of 24 train operating companies running franchised passenger rail services in Britain.
- DfT monitors overcrowding on London commuter services. The regime that monitors overcrowding is called ‘Passengers in Excess of Capacity’ (PiXC). PiXC applies to weekday commuter trains arriving in London between 07:00 and 09:59 and those departing between 16:00 and 18:59. The measure is derived from the number of passengers travelling in excess of capacity on all services divided by the total number of people travelling, expressed as a percentage. Capacity is deemed to be the number of standard class seats on the train for journeys of more than 20 minutes; for journeys of 20 minutes or less, an allowance for standing room is also made. The allowance for standing varies with the type of rolling stock but, for modern sliding door stock, is typically approximately 35 per cent of the number of seats.
- There were substantial revisions to passenger kilometres and passenger journeys in the 2005/06 Q3 edition. ATOC’s analysis of further Travelcard survey data concluded that the effects of changes in customer behaviour resulting from new products, and reported in provisional data, was overestimated. New analysis determined more realistic factors that resulted in the final figures presented in the 2005-06 Q3 edition. These factors have also been applied respectively to ticket sales made in 2004 to reflect the timing of the introduction of the new products and also to enable a better comparison of trends moving forward. Some of these figures in this edition have been subject to a minor revision since the 2005-06 Q3 edition.
- 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.
- 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 - PPM values for Hull Trains, a non-franchised operator, have been included for the second time. Note these values are not included in the sector or overall national PPM percentages.
- Train Operating Company employment data has been included for the first time.
- Satisfaction levels on Heathrow Express have been included for the first time. Note that this data has not been included in the London and South East sector or National results.
- At the end of each financial year a reconciliation exercise with the Train Operating Companies takes place and data are finalised in the yearbook edition of National Rail Trends.
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