Northern trains named among least reliable operators

Wednesday, 24 April 2024 08:29

Northern has been ranked the UK's 11th least reliable train service.

Northern trains has been included on a list of the least reliable services in the UK.

The rail operator provides services on the Airedale and Wharfedale lines to Skipton and Ilkley from Leeds and Bradford.

And according to new research from travel site Tripplo, 6.47% of Northern services were either seriously late or cancelled between January 2021 and September 2023.

This places Northern as the 11th least reliable train service in the UK, with a total of 3,323,814 minutes in delays.

Tripplo analysed data from the Office of Rail and Road to tally the number of journeys that were either cancelled or delayed by 15 minutes or more from different rail operators.

And the list was topped by Avanti West Coast, which had 15.36% of services seriously late or cancelled.

Grand Central and CrossCountry were second and third respectively.

Axel Hernborg, founder of Tripplo, said:

“The findings offer a glimpse into the state of the nation's rail services. Across the nation, there's a noticeable variation in performance, with some operators, such as Avanti West Coast, consistently underperforming.

"This variability in findings perhaps highlights the complexity of maintaining a cohesive rail network while emphasising the necessity for ongoing evaluation, strategic planning, and investment to bolster reliability standards and enhance the overall passenger experience.

“It’s no secret that the UK’s rail network is a far shout from those within mainland Europe in terms of efficiency and reliability, and these findings simply underscore that.”

A total of 25,545,581 minutes were lost due to delays across every operator over the time period analysed.

According to the Office of Rail and Road, the percentage of recorded station stops arriving ‘on time’ in Great Britain was just 62.2% in the latest quarter.