Railway performance and subsidy statistics Standard Note: SN/SG/2199 Last updated: 2 October 2013 Author: Matthew Keep Social and General Statistics Section This Note provides data and commentary relating to the performance of, and subsidy to, Train Operating Companies. Headline figures are as follows: • In Q1 2013/14, 93.0% of franchised trains arrived “on time” in Great Britain according to the Public Performance Measure (PPM); PPM has remained above 92% in Q1 since 2008/09. • During 2012/13, 68.1% of trains arrived early or within one minute of their scheduled arrival time; a decrease of 1.7 percentage points on 2011/12. • Since Spring 2000 rail passengers have become more positive about the majority of aspects of their journey. However, their satisfaction in value for money of their ticket has remained largely unchanged. • In 2012/13 franchise fees received from active Train Operating Companies (TOCs) outweighed subsidies paid, to the tune of £536.8m. Subsidies continue to be paid in respect of socially necessary services that might not otherwise be provided. Contents A. Public Performance Measure (PPM) 2 B. Right Time Punctuality 4 C. National Passenger Survey 5 D. Complaints 7 E. Subsidies 8 Standard Notes are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with Members and their staff but cannot advise others. A. Public Performance Measure (PPM) Table 1 (overleaf) details PPM at the national level and by Train Operating Company (TOC) and TOC sector. In Q1 2013/14, 93.0% of all franchised trains in Great Britain arrived on time, an increase of 0.2 percentage points on Q1 2012/13. Performance as measured by the Moving Annual Average (MAA) up to 30 June 2013 was 91.0% in Great Britain. Public performance measure - moving annual average Average percentage of franchised trains arriving on time 100 90 80 70 60 50 Average for four preeceeding quarters 40 Quarterly figure 30 20 10 0 1999/00 (Q1) 2002/03 (Q1) 2005/06 (Q1) 2008/09 (Q1) 2011-12 (Q1) In Q1, 2013/14 PPM was highest amongst regional operators with 93.3% arriving on time and lowest amongst long distance operators (90.3%). PPM was highest for c2c (96.7%) amongst all TOCs; c2c also had the highest MAA to 30 June 2013 (96.9%). PPM The PPM measures performance of individual trains against their planned timetable. Where a train fails to run its entire planned route calling at all timetabled stations, it will either be shown as cancelled (if it runs to less than half its planned mileage) or will be added to the report of those trains 20 minutes or more later than timetabled at their final destination. Trains which complete their whole route calling at all timetabled stations are measured for punctuality at their final destination. A train’s performance is recorded by the automated monitoring system which logs performance – usually using the signalling equipment. Late trains are banded according to the length of delay in reaching their final destination. A train is defined as being “on time” if it arrives within five minutes (London and South East or regional operators) or within ten minutes (long distance operators) of the planned destination arrival time. The timetable against which the trains are judged is known as the “plan of the day” timetable. This timetable generally reflects the printed timetable as amended for planned engineering works or major incidents. 2 Table 1: Public Performance Measure by Train Operating Company Percentage of trains arriving on time Great Britain 2010/114 to 2013/147 8 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 MAA1 to end Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1 of June 2013 Arriva Trains Wales 95.6 94.5 94.8 95.4 94.6 c2c 96.8 96.9 97.7 96.7 96.9 Chiltern Railways 95.1 95.2 94.9 96.2 95.6 Cross Country 90.0 90.7 89.1 91.2 88.8 East Coast 87.5 86.8 87.3 87.2 82.2 East Midlands Trains 94.3 94.0 93.7 93.7 92.5 First Capital Connect 92.3 92.2 90.0 90.9 87.5 First Great Western 92.6 91.2 91.7 91.4 90.7 First ScotRail 94.5 91.9 94.4 92.7 92.7 First Transpennine Express 94.3 94.1 93.9 94.1 92.0 Greater Anglia 92.0 92.7 92.8 94.5 92.7 London Midland 92.2 92.4 91.2 89.0 86.4 London Overground 95.0 96.4 95.8 96.6 96.3 Merseyrail 96.3 96.6 96.4 96.6 96.3 Northern 93.6 93.2 93.5 93.1 91.8 South West Trains 95.9 93.9 92.4 93.9 92.3 Southeastern 92.2 93.7 92.9 93.9 91.6 Southern 93.5 92.8 91.1 91.5 88.7 Virgin Trains 89.5 87.7 86.3 85.4 82.3 Peak Services c2c 96.2 95.9 96.8 97.3 96.5 Chiltern Railways 93.8 94.0 92.3 93.7 92.5 First Capital Connect 90.0 90.2 88.0 89.3 83.8 First Great Western 89.2 88.3 86.8 86.3 84.6 London Midland 89.4 84.8 84.7 80.7 77.1 London Overground 97.5 96.8 97.1 97.7 97.3 Greater Anglia 91.0 91.3 90.8 94.6 90.1 Southeastern 87.6 90.4 90.4 92.3 88.2 Southern 90.2 90.3 86.5 86.9 81.7 South West Trains 95.2 92.1 89.9 92.7 88.8 Non-franchised Operator First Hull trains 87.7 82.5 81.1 88.2 82.4 Grand Central 83.5 85.2 85.5 83.0 78.4 Heathrow Express 94.2 95.9 95.9 94.5 93.4 Long distance operator 2 90.8 90.1 89.7 90.3 87.3 London and South East operators 3 (inc peak) 93.6 93.4 92.5 93.2 91.2 London and South East operators (peak) 91.0 91.0 89.6 91.2 87.3 Regional Operators 4 94.0 93.2 94.0 93.3 91.4 National Level5 93.5 93.1 92.8 93.0 91.0 Notes: 1 Moving annual average: the mean value of a year’s w orth of values. 2 Long distance operators include; Cross Country; East Midlands Trains; First Great Western (high-speed); First Transpenine Express; East Coast; Greater Anglia; and Virgin Trains. 3 London and South East operators include; c2c; Chiltern Railw ays; First Capital Connect; First Great Western (commuter); London Midland; London Overground; Greater Anglia; Southeastern; Southern; and South West Trains. 4 Regional operators include; Arriva Trains Wales; East Midland Trains; First Great Western; First ScotRail; London Midland; Merseyrail; and Northern 5 Excludes non-franchised operators Source: Office of Rail Regulation National Rail Trends Portal. 3 B. Right Time Punctuality Right time punctuality measures the proportion of trains arriving early or within one minute of their scheduled arrival time. In 2012/13, 68.1% of trains arrived on time, a figure 1.7 percentage points lower than in 2011/12. Performance is highest amongst regional operators with 70.5% of trains arriving on time, and lowest amongst long distance operators (54.8%). No allowance is made in this measure for the greater distances travelled by long-distance operators. It is therefore unsurprising that in all but three years between 1997/98 and 2012/13, long-distance operators have had the smallest proportion of trains arriving on time. Table 2: Right time punctuality, by sector % of trains arriving early or within one minute of scheduled arrival time Sector London & Long South East Distance Regional National 1997/98 67.1% 59.9% 73.6% 69.8% 1998/99 60.5% 56.6% 69.3% 64.3% 1999/00 57.6% 59.6% 69.2% 62.9% 2000/01 47.1% 43.6% 57.6% 51.6% 2001/02 44.4% 38.4% 50.8% 46.9% 2002/03 45.8% 40.6% 53.1% 48.7% 2003/04 47.8% 45.3% 55.6% 51.1% 2004/05 55.0% 52.3% 54.6% 54.7% 2005/06 61.1% 57.6% 57.4% 59.4% 2006/07 63.3% 62.6% 62.0% 62.7% 2007/08 66.8% 63.4% 66.0% 66.2% 2008/09 68.3% 63.5% 68.5% 68.0% 2009/10 69.3% 65.8% 72.3% 70.2% 2010/11 69.8% 61.1% 71.0% 69.6% 2011/12 70.3% 59.7% 71.0% 69.8% 2012/13 68.4% 54.8% 70.5% 68.1% Source: Office for Rail Regulation. National Rail Trends Portal 4 C. National Passenger Survey In Spring 2013, according to the National Passenger Survey, 82% of passengers felt satisfied with their overall journey. Passenger’s level of satisfaction across different aspects of their journey: relatively low levels of satisfaction are observed for value for money and how TOCs deal with delays; relatively higher levels of passenger satisfaction are observed for the way that staff deal with requests, journey time, and information provided about train times and platforms. Table 3 (overleaf) shows national level results for the National Passenger Survey for the spring wave of the survey for the years 2000-2013. More precisely Table 3 shows the % of those surveyed who responded positively when questioned about different aspects of their journey.