WAGN -- Our local railway
The punctuality statistics for UK railways would drive advanced countries such as Switzerland and Japan to despair. Even the basis of the figures -- that a long-distance train may be deemed 'on time' if it arrives within 10 minutes of its schedule -- would cause a mildly raised eyebrow in places that know how valuable railways are!
Nonetheless, the figures for last Winter do bear some examination. The following is a list of all railways that achieved better than 90% punctuality between January and March 2005. We have ignored the distinction made by the Strategic Rail Authority between long-distance routes (where NO company achieved above 90%, so none appear here), regional routes and London & SE routes (which includes WAGN; in both these latter categories, the 'on-time' criterion is actually stiffer, at 5 minutes).
Island Line 97.5%
Merseyrail 94.2% c2c 93.2%
Chiltern 92.5%
And that's it! But there are TWO reasons why you might find it cheering to look a little deeper. First, there's a sense in which all of these chart-toppers have it easier than the others to keep time. The Island Line, for example is the Isle of Wight's only railway, and it comprises just a single length of track on which trains run between Ryde and Shanklin: no connections, no junctions, no other trains to interfere. c2c (London to Southend) and Chiltern (Marylebone to Birmingham) have the same advantages -- much less potentially to go wrong. In truth, we don't know Merseyrail well enough to comment, but we're sure some of our readers do.
And the second reason emerges when we look at the next two entries in this league table:
WAGN 89.2%
ONE 89.0%
These are the services you encounter from Downham Market or Ely. Sure, the Fen Line from Ely to Kings Lynn has some of the 'Island Line' advantages, but WAGN has to operate, as does ONE, on some of the most crowded and contested tracks within the South East. This may not match continental standards, but credit where it's due. No one will be very surprised that the Virgin West Coast route came last, failing to achieve even 75% punctuality!