Manchester stations top list with most disrupted trains
Manchester Oxford Road has been named as the British station with the most delayed trains, according to consumer product researcher Which.
Which analysed data from On Time Trains from between January and September this year, showing that 68% of trains from Oxford Road experienced delays. At peak times, this reached as much as 77%.
Manchester stations overall fared badly in Which’s top 10 most delayed stations, with Piccadilly and Victoria also featuring fifth and eight respectively. Manchester was the only city to have more than one station in the Top 10. Liverpool Central was the only other North West station mentioned and ranked tenth on the list, with 49% of trains delayed.
London stations were considered in a separate list to the rest of the country’s stations, but all still rated better than Oxford Road and Piccadilly. The worst station, Clapham Junction, has 54% of trains delayed, still fewer than Piccadilly’s 56%.
In terms of most cancelled trains, London King’s Cross came top at 6%, but Oxford Road followed shortly after at 5%, and Victoria and Piccadilly both had 4% cancellations.
Which named East Midlands and TransPennine Express as the worst-performing train operators to run out of Oxford Road, with more than 70% of their trains experiencing delays.
Customers across the North have experienced a huge amount of train disruption this year, particularly associated with Network Rail’s delay in completing upgrade work and Northern implementing an emergency timetable which threw journeys into disarray in May.
Which is the brand name used by the Consumers’ Association, a charity which researches goods and services to encourage better quality for consumers. Read its analysis of train delays in full here
I’ve been waiting for ages for an article on this subject.
By Iggy Pop
77% is an appalling statistic for Oxford Raod
By Commuter guy
Shocking state of affairs. Go to Berlin if you want to see how a city runs an integrated transport system.Never mind, the Elizabeth line will soon be up and running. We can all rejoice at yet another trainset for the capital, whilst we travel on clapped out trains which would shame Venezuela.
By Elephant
Elephant – I think it might be better to draw comparisons with a regional city in Germany, as opposed to Berlin, which may well be a similar situation as London getting all the shiny new trainsets while the outlying areas suffer.
By Charabang
I wonder how much this disruption is influenced by Chris Grayling’s decision not to provide funding to build the two additional platforms at Piccadilly…
By Up North
Charabang. Although your point is an important one,other European countries do not abandon their regional economies to the same extent as Britain does.Germany in particular has excellent transport in all its cities. We are unique in this country with the possible exception of Italy, in that our governments do not invest properly or allow prosperity to reach all corners of what is a very small island. The life chances of someone from a working class background in Newcastle are infinitely poorer than those of someone from a similar background in Surrey and this is down to neglect, a strong but very apt word. If Manchester were in Germany it would have cheap,twenty four hour transport system and be an hour from London.
By Elephant
Charabang. How about, Dusseldorf then? Or Lille in France?
By Loganberry
Berlin is one of the worst examples you could give.
By PDM
No idea, I’ve been to neither of those cities, hence why I asked what the state of play was like elsewhere in Germany.
Our current system is very poor and London-centric. I do however think that history plays a big part, with Germany being made up on strong regional states, similar to Spain, unlike here. More investment is definitely required however, and I note that DB are the sole provider, perhaps a similar system here would work.
By Charabang
Elephant – pedantic point, but Great Britain is not a very small island. It is the eighth biggest island in the world.
By John
You don’t need to get transport in Berlin as the roads are nice and clear and there’s lots of parking, very little traffic.
By Paris
Berlin had the benefit of a major clearance and rebuilding scheme quite a few years ago.
By B Harris
It is indeed the 8th biggest island in the world but from the tip of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall is about 1,000 miles. In world terms that is a stroll. From Norfolk to the Welsh coast is a much shorter distance. We can be pedantic and include the scattered islands around us but my point is the neglect of the big conurbations outside the South East. Crossrail cost 15 billion pounds. That would have gone a long way to improving rail chaos not just in the North but everywhere else.There is a tendency for politicians to see the North as like East Anglia or the West Country. A place which needs the odd extra train between small towns.I truly believe that they have no concept of how big our communities are.
By Elephant