Analysis shows rail passengers in Britain are still facing record disruptions, with 4% of services canceled in the last 12 months.
More than 400,000 services were fully or partially canceled by November 9, according to data from the regulator Office of Rail and Road (ORR); Passengers in Northern England bore the brunt of the disruption.
While most trips (368,843) were canceled that day, 33,209 trips were “p-coded” or “pre-cancelled”, meaning trains were withdrawn from schedules by 22:00 the previous evening.
The figures show how far Britain's railways still have to go to restore reliability, despite moves to improve and integrate operations and the final resolution of a bitter two-year fare dispute this summer.
The moving annual average, the industry measure used by ORR, exceeded 4% for the first time in October; This rate is more than double the cancellation rate recorded in 2015.
The worst performer was Northern, which canceled 8% of its services, including advance cancellations. Avanti West Coast canceled 7.8% of its services and CrossCountry canceled 7.4%.
Travelers in the south also experienced difficulties in the later months of 2024. Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern services to and from London, recorded the second highest cancellation rate in the last 12 weeks of data.
The persistent distrust comes despite train companies still charging far fewer train timetables than before the Covid outbreak. CrossCountry planned to run 78.4% of the trains it operated during the same period in 2019, 80.1% GTR and 83.5% Avanti.
A separate Guardian analysis of delays and cancellation data from performance tracking site OnTimeTrains found that stations in the north of England and the Midlands tended to record proportionately more delays and cancellations.
More than one in five trains at Manchester's Oxford Road station have run late in the last 12 months, according to an analysis of England's 100 busiest stations. The station, run by Northern, is consistently among the worst performing stations. It had the highest delay rate, with 21.5% of services delayed by more than five minutes.
Additionally, 8.7% of trains were cancelled; it was second only to nearby Manchester Victoria, also operated by Northern; 10.1% of trains failed to run and 14.4% were more than five minutes late.
The Labor government has legislated for more train operations to be brought into public ownership to improve services, but Northern has been run by the Department for Transport's own operator since it was renationalised in March 2020.
Crew shortages and problems with voluntary rest day work have plagued the company, which has reached agreements with drivers but not conductors.
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Ministers continued to meet with the chief executives of the worst-performing operators and their Network Rail counterparts to address underperformance. DfT will soon require operators to display performance information for passengers at stations.
The government, and in particular former transport minister Louise Haigh, moved quickly to restore public ownership, but she also said it was not a “magic solution” but an important first step towards fundamental changes.
Labor continues to push towards a new body, Great British Railways, with legislation planned next year to integrate rail and train and set fares and timetables.
A DfT spokesman said: “Poor performance will not be tolerated and we will hold all operators accountable, regardless of ownership.
“Bringing services back into public ownership will put passengers first and allow us to reinvest in our railways. “By bringing rail and train together, British Railways will end years of fragmentation by delivering more reliable, better quality services and simpler ticketing and fares.”
A spokesman for Northern said: “We are sorry for our recent performance, we accept that it has not been good enough and understand the impact this has on our customers. We are working hard to resolve issues around train crew availability so we can improve reliability for our customers.”
A potential deal with the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has been rejected in a vote by members.
“Despite this setback, we will continue to work with our colleagues and the RMT union to find a new way forward. We recognize that more needs to be done to address performance issues and we are now focused on implementing our improvement plan,” the Northern spokesperson said.
