Train passengers in Britain are still facing record levels of disruption, with 4% of services cancelled in the last 12 months, analysis shows.
More than 400,000 services were either fully or partly cancelled in the year to 9 November, with passengers in northern England bearing the brunt of the disruption, according to data from the regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Most services, 368,843, were cancelled on the day, while 33,209 were “p-coded” or “pre-cancelled”, meaning trains were pulled from timetables by 10pm the previous evening.
The figures show how far Britain’s railways still need to travel to restore reliability, despite moves to improve and integrate operations, and the eventual resolution of a bitter two-year pay dispute this summer.
The industry measure the ORR uses, the moving annual average, surpassed 4% for the first time in October, more than double the rate of cancellations recorded in 2015.
The worst performing company was Northern, which cancelled 8% of its services, including pre-cancellations. Avanti West Coast cancelled 7.8% of its services and CrossCountry 7.4%.
Commuters in the south also suffered in the later months of 2024. Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern services to and from London, recorded the second-highest cancellation rate in the latest 12 weeks of data.
The persistent unreliability comes despite the train companies still timetabling far fewer trains than before the Covid pandemic. CrossCountry planned to run 78.4% of the trains it ran over the same period in 2019, GTR 80.1% and Avanti 83.5%.
A separate Guardian analysis of delay and cancellation data from the performance tracking site OnTimeTrains found stations in the north of England and Midlands tended to record proportionately more delays and cancellations.
More than one in five trains at Manchester’s Oxford Road station ran late over the last 12 months, according to an analysis of Britain’s 100 busiest stations. The station, which is managed by Northern, has consistently ranked among the worst performing. It had the highest proportion of delays, with 21.5% of services delayed by more than five minutes.
It also had 8.7% of trains cancelled, second only to nearby Manchester Victoria, also run by Northern, where 10.1% of trains failed to run and 14.4% were delayed more than five minutes.
The Labour government has legislated to take more train operations into public ownership to improve services, but Northern has been run by the Department for Transport’s own operator since being renationalised in March 2020.
Issues with crew shortages and voluntary rest-day working have plagued the company, which has secured agreements with drivers but failed to reach agreement with conductors.
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Ministers have continued to meet the managing directors of the worst-performing operators and their Network Rail counterparts to address poor performance. The DfT will soon require operators to display performance information for passengers at stations.
The government, and especially the former transport secretary Louise Haigh, moved swiftly to bring back public ownership, but she also said that doing so was “not a silver bullet” but a crucial first step towards fundamental changes.
Labour has continued moves towards a new entity, Great British Railways, with legislation planned next year to integrate track and train and set fares and timetables.
A DfT spokesperson said: “Poor performance will not be tolerated, and we will hold all operators accountable, regardless of ownership.
“Bringing services back into public ownership will prioritise passengers and allow us to reinvest in our railways. Great British Railways will end years of fragmentation by bringing track and train together, delivering more reliable, better quality services and simpler ticketing and fares.”
A spokesperson for Northern said: “We are sorry for our recent performance, accept it has not been good enough and understand the impact this has on our customers. We are working hard to address issues with train crew availability so we can improve reliability for our customers.”
A potential deal with the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union was rejected by members in a vote.
“Despite this setback, we will continue to work with colleagues and the RMT union to find a new way forward. We realise there is more to be done to address issues with performance and are now focused on delivering our improvement plan,” the Northern spokesperson said.
