Rail freight on upward curve as passenger rail performance dips, ORR data shows

The Office of Rail and Road has released its latest quarterly passenger and freight rail performance reports which showed a slight decline in performance across the network for passenger performance but a marked improvement for freight in the three months of April to June.

For passenger rail, the three core measurements of performance for all operators were all slightly down from the same period last year. On time punctuality which measures the percentage of time trains arrived at the station on time was 70.1%, whilst the percentage of time a train arriving at their final destination within 10 minutes of the scheduled time was 87.4% - down slightly from the corresponding quarter last year, which was 87.6%.

Cancellation scores were also slightly up, by 3.5% however ORR did counter that there had been four more days of severe disruption than the same period last year. This included the points failures at London Blackfriars in April and the track failure in May at Norwood Junction in London.

The results did show planned trains had increased for 19 of the 24 operators measured, including a huge 26% increase for Transport for Wales (TfW) which was attributed to the operator’s introduction of its new class 197s and subsequent new services across its network. Overall, there has been a 7% increase in the last year up to June, in planned trains across the network.

As well as the passenger performance statistics, freight usage and performance statistics were also released by ORR. For freight, it was a broadly positive picture with a 7% increase in freight moved in April compared to the corresponding quarter last year. This was the highest since January 2022, and only marginally less than pre-covid levels.

Biomass moved by freight, driven partly by Drax power station’s increasing use of the fuel has resulted in a substantial increase by nearly 94% compared to the same quarter last year. There was a marked increase in freight moved by retailers also.

Reliability across the freight network is now at its best in three years, with 7.6% of freight being delayed or cancelled. This is a 2.3% shift on the previous quarter, where it stood at 9.9%.

Rail Partners chief executive, Andy Bagnall called on the government to turn support into action after the encouraging statistics.

He said: ‘It is promising to see an increase both in traffic and reliability in the regulator’s latest figures on freight rail usage and performance. Rail Partners and its freight members now want to build on this by turning the new Government’s strong support for rail freight growth into practical actions.

‘Rail freight operators want to invest in growing and further decarbonising the sector. They need decision makers to help them create a favourable environment by providing confidence around long term access to the network and investments in capacity.”