Revealed: UK's least reliable stations where seven in ten trains are late

As many as seven in ten trains are cancelled or delayed at some of Britain's busiest stations, a Which? report has found. 

The consumer watchdog has identified the busy commuter hubs which it is calling the UK's "travel blackspots", where trains are least reliable. 

Of busiest 20 stations analysed trains were late or cancelled at least half the time at a total of nine.

Manchester’s Oxford Road station, which hosts more than nine million passenger journeys each year, has the least punctual services, with more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of its trains running late or cancelled since the beginning of this year, Which? found.

The problems were even more intense at peak times – with more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of trains not departing or arriving as scheduled.

York station came in as second worst, with has more than 10 million annual passenger journeys. Some 65 per cent of trains departed or arrived late or were cancelled over the period.

Virgin East Coast Trains (which had its franchise taken over by London North Eastern Railway in June) was the operator which performed worst for passengers at this station with more than three-quarters (78 per cent) of trains arriving or departing late or being cancelled. 

Passengers at Gatwick Airport and Birmingham New Street have had to put up with the joint third worst punctuality, with 60 per cent of services failing to run to schedule.

Which? used data from rail-performance tracking site On Time Trains to work out how many departures and arrivals were at least one minute late or cancelled.    

Which? analysed all delays as even those of a few minutes can have a knock-on effect on other services on the network and passengers’ onward journey - or ability to complete their journey as planned.

Timetabling chaos earlier this year contributed to the lack of reliability of trains at commuter hubs, Which? said. 

Alex Hayman, Which? Managing Director of Public Markets, said: “Passengers have told us reliability is hugely important to them. People have been left deeply frustrated at the unacceptably high levels of delays and cancellations which impact on their everyday lives.

“Passengers must be at the centre of the forthcoming Government rail review, it must look at performance targets to drive improvements in punctuality and reliability for passengers."