Rail passengers think that “on time” should mean that the train is on time – within a minute of its scheduled time, according to new research from Transport Focus. The rail industry considers five minutes late (or 10 minutes late for long-distance) as on time. Passengers also thought that lateness should be measured at every station stop, not just at the final stop.

Rail passengers also found the rail industry “Public (sic) Performance Measure” (PPM) difficult to understand. When it was explained to them, they suspected that the current target level of 92.5 per cent (Southeastern’s target is around 90%) is regarded as a ceiling rather than a minimum; some argued that an industry focused on its customers should always aim to deliver 100 per cent, even if it is never achieved. 

Other findings from the research included:

• Passengers thought that “significantly late” should mean 10 minutes late for Southeastern, Thameslink and similar services, not the current 30 minutes used as the threshold for Delay-Repay.
• Many passengers felt that it is not acceptable for train companies to add extra time into the timetable on approach to the destination station. For instance, according to Southeastern’s timetables for instance, Waterloo East to Charing Cross takes 6-8 minutes whereas Charing Cross to Waterloo East takes 3 minutes. (Yes, trains need to approach Charing Cross more cautiously because it is a dead end, but when we have timed trains from Waterloo East to Charing Cross it really does only take 3 minutes even with a cautious driver.)
• There was strong opposition to the current practice that a train cancelled before 22:00 the day before does not count as a cancellation in official statistics.
• For commuters, for each minute of lateness (that is, after scheduled arrival time), overall passenger satisfaction declines by three percentage points. 

Among its recommendations Transport Focus is pressing for:

• A main objective for 2019-2024 should be to markedly improve true ‘on time’ punctuality across the rail network, including at intermediate stations. That means robust timetables that are neither overly heroic nor excessively padded.
• A move away from PPM as the sole measure of success. It is not trusted by passengers and does not drive sufficient focus on punctuality as passengers define it.
• To give a more meaningful picture of punctuality, the industry should make it easy for passengers to see a graduated picture of how often their train (or group of trains) is ‘right time’, within two minutes, three minutes, four minutes and so on. If a passenger uses only the ‘07:29’ and the ‘18:17’, data for those trains alone should be readily available.
• The rail industry must become properly transparent and granular with all performance information.

What do you think? Please let us know your views and experiences.