Only 70 per cent of South Western Trains arrived on time last month

Train timekeeping on London’s major rail routes is getting worse despite the millions of pounds spent.

Statistics published today show that for the last month only 70 per cent of services ran on time, meaning more than 500 trains late, on South Western Trains (SWR) including routes into mainline Waterloo Station.

On Southeastern, punctuality dropped from 84.6 per cent on time to 82.4 per cent for the four week period ending 8 December; Great Western Railway (GWR) was down to 82.3 per cent on time (84.5 per cent last year) and Greater Anglia 82.5 per cent (86.3 per cent last year)

Across all operators the key Public Performance Measure (PPM) fell to 80.9 per cent compared with 84.3 per cent last year.

PPM shows the percentage of trains which ran their scheduled journey and arrived within five or 10 minutes on time, depending on area, combining timekeeping and reliability.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, the national watchdog, said: “These figures reflect the daily experience for passengers.

“The best Christmas present the rail industry could give to passengers is a reliable service.”

Network Rail, which produced the figures, said: “We know that passengers want more frequent, reliable trains, with more seats and ticket prices that offer value for money.

“Over the long term there has been a significant improvement in punctuality on the railway.”

SWR has been hit by regular infrastructure failures – the responsibility of Network Rail – and strike action by RMT rail guards. Two more 24-hour walkouts have been ordered for Thursday 27 December and Monday 31 December.

Waterloo was closed during August last year as part of an £800 million redevelopment of the station and major routes to and from the West.

Since then, however, there have been virtually daily delays. Network rail has been under fire for track and signal problems and how long it takes to restore services to normal.

Official figures revealed there were 34 million late passenger journeys on SWR during the last year. Almost one in five trains were late.