Great Western running late (From Oxford Mail)

Great Western running late

9:35am Wednesday 23rd August 2006

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Poor timekeeping on First Great Western's long-distance express services is under investigation by the Office for Rail Regulation.

The ORR said in its quarterly National Rail Review, published yesterday, that the punctuality of the Oxfordshire operator's services had "deteriorated in absolute terms and is well below the sector average".

Nationally, 87 per cent of trains were on time in April to June this year - defined as being within 10 minutes of the time in timetables - compared with 84.3 per cent in the same period last year.

However, less than 75 per cent of FGW's expresses were on time, a slump of about five per cent.

Passenger satisfaction with FGW also fell over the same period, while other express operators saw satisfaction improve.

The ORR said that part of the cause of delays to FGW's expresse services was the large-scale track renewal programme on lines from London Paddington.

However, it said that track and signals operator Network Rail and FGW had drawn up joint plans to tackle the problems, which should be in place next month.

Among the ideas already implemented is for teams of FGW and Network Rail managers to 'adopt' poorly-performing services to identify why they are suffering delays and tackle the causes.

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