No stats for Avanti yet, as theyve just taken over.
Virgin Trains is celebrating a five star rating for reliability in the latest Annual Passenger Survey from Which? today. Customers of Virgin Trains on the west coast are also experiencing record punctuality as a result of a combined effort between the rail operator and Network Rail to identify and resolve the cause of delays on the route. 88.3% of trains arrived on time over the last twelve months, an improvement of eight percentage points since comparable records began just after privatisation, two decades ago*.
This has resulted in eight months of strong performance – with PPM (punctuality) figures of over 90% - and a significant reduction in ‘bad days’.
Virgin Trains and Network Rail first started working together in this way in 2009, leading to a series of improvements being made on the west coast main line each year. However, in the last 18 months, the two companies have shifted their focus to the basics of railway operation and infrastructure maintenance and as a result the benefits of the working group have now been realised.
These combined efforts have seen 100 days with a PPM of 90% or above in the past six months. That compares with 58 days in the same period two years ago. In addition, the last period has seen over 45% of trains arrive at their destinations early. **