Region gets more punctual trains

Central saw improvements but still has some of the worst figures

Rail passengers in the West Midlands are travelling on more punctual trains, figures released on Friday show.

The biggest improvement was from Virgin West Coast, linking Birmingham, Rugby, Coventry, Stafford and Wolverhampton with London, the north and Scotland.

Its punctuality grew from 66.4% in autumn 2004 to 81% in autumn 2005.

The best-performing company was Chiltern Railways. It achieved 91.1% punctuality on its services from Birmingham and Warwickshire to London.

Compared to Virgin, Chiltern generally offers cheaper but slower services on a different line and using different stations in London and Birmingham.

It was beaten only by a tiny firm operating a single line in the Isle of Wight.

The poorest-performing company last autumn was First Great Western - serving Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the west of England. It managed to run only 67.6% of its trains on time.

The figures released on Friday were put together by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

West Midlands punctuality: end of 2005 (end of 2004) Chiltern Railways 91.1% (91.3%) Silverlink 88.5% (83.3%) Virgin West Coast 81% (66.4%) First Great Western Link 80% (80.3%) Arriva Trains Wales 77.6% (76.7%) Virgin Cross Country 72.7% (73.1%) Central Trains 71.9% (67.2%) First Great Western 67.6% (75.7%)

For regional services across England, the punctuality of trains was 79.5% last autumn compared with 78.9% in the same period in 2004.

The statistics also showed the overall fares increase in the 12 months to January 2006 averaged 5.8%.

Central Trains, the biggest operator in the Midlands, said figures prove its punctuality was getting better.

Some 72% of its services arrived within five minutes of the advertised times in the last three months of 2005.

That showed a 5% improvement over the same period in 2004 and a 12% improvement over 2003.

Operations Director Andy Thomas said: "We are now doing even better with Central Trains regularly recording figures of around 85% plus.

"We are not complacent, we will keep up the momentum in order to give our passengers high levels of punctuality."

Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "Since the Government took back direct control of the railways, passengers are paying more and more for their tickets, trains are getting more and more overcrowded, rail services are being axed and most of the projects that could help ease the pressure have been scrapped."