Performance
We have tried to make the performance information as easy as possible to understand. If you require an explanation of any of the issues below, you can contact Customer Relations who will be happy to help.
Recent events
During the past month our services were disrupted on the following days;
8 December – A power failure at Sileby (between Loughborough and Leicester) caused significant disruption to our services. 14 services had to be cancelled and many others travelling through the area were delayed.
15 December – Our services were disrupted due to a horse on the track in the Dronfield area. Speed restrictions were imposed causing a number of delays.
22 December – We had a loss of signals at Great Bowden (north of Market Harborough) which caused numerous delays and cancellations. Signals are the railways equivalent of traffic lights and without them, a much slower manual system had to be used.
23 December – Two separate signaling problems caused severe disruption to our services. The first was between Loughborough and Leicester affecting services to and from London. The second was between Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Park Way which affected services on our Liverpool to Norwich route.
28 December – A person was hit by a train in the Leagrave area (north of Luton). The emergency services had to temporarily close the line to carry out their duties and this caused a number of delays and cancellations.
3 January – Our services were disrupted in three areas due to obstructions on the line; Sibsey (affecting services in the Boston area), Brandon (near Derby) and Eggington (affecting services between Derby and Crewe)
12 January – A person was hit by a train in the St Albans area (between London St Pancras and Luton). The emergency services had to temporarily close the line to carry out their duties and this caused a number of delays and cancellations.
Punctuality and reliability
In the four week period up to 7 January 2012, our Public Performance Measure (PPM) was 92.7%. The PPM figure looks at all scheduled trains, checking that they have called at all their booked stations and arrived less than ten minutes late.
Contingency plans
Our overall aim is always to get the maximum number of our customers to their destination with the minimum amount of disruption. We have members of staff, called Route Controllers, and one will always be on duty, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have many systems at their disposal and work with a small team of people monitoring our route at all times, liaising with Network Rail, our train depots and our staff to ensure customer journeys run as smoothly as possible.
Track and line-side equipment update
When work is being carried out, on or near the tracks, Temporary Speed Restrictions (TSRs) are imposed (just as they are with roadworks). While there are a number of TSRs on our route, these are planned for within our timetable and aren’t currently extending any of our journey times.
Common causes of delays and cancellations
We always try to run our services on time, however there are times when this is just not possible. There are many things that can affect a train's running time, including train faults, fatalities, vandalism and security alerts. This page was last updated 13 January 2012.