Rail services worse in East Anglia

RAIL services between London and East Anglia improved during the first months of this year - but are still worse than the national average according to new figures published today.

But rail bosses in the region said the improvement had continued since March and that more than nine out of ten InterCity trains in the region were now running on time.

Figures from the government's Office of Rail Regulation showed that the number of InterCity trains operated by 'one' running on time increased from 83.3 per cent during the first three months of 2005 to 85.5pc during the same period this year.

The reliability of local and suburban services operated by the company fell slightly - from 90.8pc to 89.8pc.

Nationally 89.8 pc of services ran on time.

Peter Meades of 'one' railways said reliability had improved recently to well over 90pc on its InterCity routes.

He said: “We have improved things because of three factors: Our engineers are now more familiar with the new electric locomotives which have been introduced over the last two years and there have been some modifications to improve their reliability.

“We have now completed the introduction of newer carriages which are more reliable. And Network Rail has not had as many problems as it did in the autumn and early months of this year.

“We hope this situation will continue - and that our reliability figures will improve steadily.”

Today's figures come just a week after another survey found that 'one' had the lowest passenger satisfaction rating of any of the country's rail companies.

Mr Meades said the company remained irritated by this survey because it had not spoken to any passengers on branch lines or on services which had been performing well over the last few months and had concentrated its efforts on the West Anglia service where there had been ongoing problems which had only recently been sorted out.