RAIL PUNCTUALITY IN GREAT WESTERN IS BRITAIN’S TOP TEN BEST

The railway in Great Western has one of the highest number of trains arriving on time, according to the latest train performance records released by Network Rail today.

First Great Western continues to outperform target, with an annual average of 92.4% of trains arriving on time by the end of April - the first month of the operating year.   

Chris Rayner, director of operations and customer services, said: "Today’s records mark a positive start for the year.  Train punctuality continues to go from strength to strength and just in March, we ended the year with performance results in Great Western at its highest in 13 years.  Delivering an even better service for our customers and for passengers remains our primary focus as high levels of investment to beat bottlenecks and overcrowding continue."

First Great Western’s Managing Director, Mark Hopwood, said: “We work closely together with Network Rail to deliver the best possible service to our customers and are very pleased with how far we’ve come. However, there is still more to do and we look forward to conitiuing to work side by side to improve our performance even further.”

Across the country, 94.0% of services arrived on time between 1 April – 1 May.  This compares to 93.6% in same period, period 1, last year.   In all, 11 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve, or stay at record high levels, compared to the same period last year.