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The Ticket Collector

So just what is “on time” when it comes to the Railway?

April 11, 2008 on 4:40 pm | In DfT, Fares, Magazine, NXEC, Timetable, tickets |

The term ‘on time’ normally means that a train arrives at the correct time publicised in a timetable - correct?
No, not on the railway its not.

When it comes to punctually - the figures which the Railway Companies print huge A1 posters and show off and say “hey look at us we have 98% punctually, blah blah” and which also determines your season ticket discount . You’d expect that when they say they have 98% that 98% of trains arrived at the destination at the timetabled time.
Wrong! The trains only have to arrive within 5 minutes of the timetabled time.

So the train arrives 5 minutes late and it is still on time! Even better is that long distance ‘intercity’ services have an extra 5 minutes allowance. So now the train can be up to 10 minutes and be still on time!

Now what the Railway Companies are getting wise to is that they can add extra minutes into the timetable here and there as ‘recovery time’. So if they are regularly failing the 10 minutes time the can always add extra minutes into the working timetable to compensate. Now what the Train Company would say is this ‘recovery time’ is to compensate for engineering works and speed restrictions.

When it comes to compensation for the trains running late, you have to be delayed by 30 minutes before you even get to start to get compensation. But what with the extra minutes being added here and there just how late is it in real terms?

3 Comments »

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  1. I think up to 10 minutes late is acceptable, but that means 10 minutes on the entire journey, including any changes. If one leg being late means I’m an hour late to my destination, that’s not on. The only way to avoid that is for trains not to be late at all.

    At least with the recovery time, you are more likely to arrive no later than you expected. In fact, if it’s hard for the operator to keep to the timetable (because the tracks are too congested or whatever) one could argue that the timetable needs to be altered to be more realistic.

    What is annoying, though, is when the train pulls into a station mid-journey and sits there for 10 minutes because it isn’t due to leave (that happens to me quite often at Reading).

    Comment by Jonathan — April 11, 2008 #

  2. I understood the Punctuality requirement to be within 5 minutes of the advertised arrival time at the train’s destination for most services, but 10 minutes for InterCity®, though I believe that c2c have an unofficial target of no more than 3 minutes late.

    The point is generally moot, however, as most TOCs pad out the timetable with recovery time between key stations, in an attempt to ensure an on time arrival.

    Take St Pancras - Sheffield, for example. I can remember when that was timetabled for 2 hours 15 minutes for most down trains, which has now increased to 2 hours 21 minutes. Up trains have been padded out even further, to 2 hours 24 minutes.

    Comment by Barry Salter — April 12, 2008 #

  3. So when trying to claim compensation from, eg. National Express, we need to factor in the leeway? Good tip, ta.

    Why don’t they have a system of acceptable delay per distance travelled by the train? That would make more sense - and more fair when your journey is a short one, eg. 15 minutes, where 5 minutes is a delay of 1/3rd the time…..

    Comment by Mikeachim — April 15, 2008 #

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