Flooding lowers figures for rail punctuality (From Oxford Mail)

Flooding lowers figures for rail punctuality

10:00am Tuesday 15th January 2013 in Countywide

LATEST punctuality figures show 87.2 per cent of First Great Western (FGW) trains arrived within five minutes of their schedule.

Figures released by Network Rail yesterday cover December 9 to January 5, during which floods hit the region and Oxfordshire.

The performance – for London and Thames Valley – was down from 89.8 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.

Some 93.5 per cent arrived within five minutes for the Chiltern Railway line from Birmingham to London via Oxford. The national average was 88.2 per cent.

Other figures show 70.1 per cent arrived within a minute in the year to January 5 for FGW and 85.2 per cent for Chiltern. The national average was 69.1 per cent.

James Davis, spokesman for FGW, said: “The provision of timely services has been impacted by the severe weather conditions before Christmas, with Network Rail’s infrastructure flooded.”

He said track work by Network Rail – responsible for rail infrastructure – would “support performance improvement”.

Chiltern Railways operator Thomas Ableman said: “We are leading the way nationally when it comes to delivering an excellent service.”

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