One in three British rail services run late under tightened standards

[John Ashworth]

One in three British rail services run late under tightened standards

More than a third of British rail services failed to reach stations on time over the past year, according to new performance measurements.

Under the toughened standards, trains are considered punctual if they arrive within a minute of the timetable, rather than the previous limit of up to 10 minutes. Under the changed regime, just 64.7% of services were on time in the 12 months to the end of June, a figure the rail passenger watchdog Transport Focus described as “unacceptable”.

Tougher rail performance measurements show fewer than two-thirds of scheduled stops at stations were made on time, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said the new way of measuring punctuality would “stop masking whether trains are really on time”...