The National Rail Trends (punctuality) report released today by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), shows that Midland Mainline is the most punctual UK long distance train operating company, with a punctuality figure of 89.8% between October and December 2004.

We were also the most improved UK train operator for punctuality compared to the same period in 2003.

This year our performance has continued to go from strength to strength. In January, we achieved our best ever punctuality, with a record 94.3% of trains reaching their destination on time.

These achievements have been helped by a dedicated improvement programme, which included an £18.7m refurbishment of our High Speed Train fleet, the arrival of brand new Meridian trains and improved procedures at our stations.

And we're committed to ensuring we maintain a consistently high level of punctuality throughout the rest of 2005.

Geez, I must always get one of the 10.2%

Originally posted by hotphil
Geez, I must always get one of the 10.2%

and i must always be the other 89.8%... never been on a late MML yet

Well although I don't travel by train too often, mine have been on time. Off to London next weekend with Mainline so hope it keeps up the punctuality.:)

Usually a few mins late into St Pancras whenever I go, but doesnt really matter. More time to enjoy the free tea and coffee :P

I tend to use the trains every other wk/end I've usually found them to be on time but it's when I have to change, then they're either way too early or 20 mins late. I get stuck between deciding whether to run for the next train scouting the screens to see which platform I should be on or thinking bugger it I'll grab a coffee and a fag.
9 times out of 10 I plump for the fag and coffee.

Only once ever been late on Midland Mainline - coming back from St Pancras (some years ago now).

Was quite late getting back from Chesterfield a couple of weeks ago - train came to a complete stop in a cutting. Driver announced youths were on the line, and he had stopped for safety reasons.

Does Andy C know if such an occurance will count against Midland Mainline's punctuality records? If so, seems unfair as the delay was outside of their control.

I think there's all kinds of massaging of the figures, much like the unemployment figures!
Such an occurrence is within their control though.

all that has happened is that they have revised timetables effectively making it look like the journey takes longer by adding 5 minutes to the arrival time. Therefore giving themselves more time.

Customer service is still quite poor it will take a lot to get that to change

Originally posted by clairee
all that has happened is that they have revised timetables effectively making it look like the journey takes longer by adding 5 minutes to the arrival time. Therefore giving themselves more time.

Customer service is still quite poor it will take a lot to get that to change

And whats wrong with that, if the timetable is unrealistic then it makes sense to change it.

Customer service i've found to be good. Left a hat on a train the other day and was directed exactly to the person who had it within 3-4 minutes of realising.

Originally posted by clairee
all that has happened is that they have revised timetables effectively making it look like the journey takes longer by adding 5 minutes to the arrival time. Therefore giving themselves more time. That's quite sensible really. If you CANNOT arrive where you're supposed to at the dictated time, give yourself more and you will.
Definetely a sensible idea.

It should be remembered that the train operators are at the total mercy of Rail Track in the punctuality stakes. All it takes is for some cowboy contractor to leave a few clips off a rail or forget to tighten some bolts in a points set and you might as well throw the timetable in the bin. ;)

Originally posted by redrobbo
Only once ever been late on Midland Mainline - coming back from St Pancras (some years ago now).

Was quite late getting back from Chesterfield a couple of weeks ago - train came to a complete stop in a cutting. Driver announced youths were on the line, and he had stopped for safety reasons.

Does Andy C know if such an occurance will count against Midland Mainline's punctuality records? If so, seems unfair as the delay was outside of their control.

There are actually two versions of the punctuality figures. The public performance monitor (PPM) includes all trains, and whether they arrive within 9 minutes of advertised time or not, regardless of reason for delay. The other figures are the passengers charter version, which does exclude days where there was serious service disruption. The passengers charter figures are the ones that are used to decide whether season ticket holders qualify for a discount on renewal. However it should also be noted if Midland Mainline exclude a day from the passengers charter figures, season ticket holders get an extra days travel for free.

Originally posted by clairee
all that has happened is that they have revised timetables effectively making it look like the journey takes longer by adding 5 minutes to the arrival time. Therefore giving themselves more time.

This may appear to the cynic to be a fiddle but it isn't. it is a common sense approach.

You need to bear in mind these things - firstly the trains are much busier than they used to be, so tend to need longer in stations picking up and setting down passengers, which is where most of the extra running time in the timetable is. The other thing is in the last few years, especially in Sheffield, there has been political pressure to have faster headline journey times, which in some cases has resulted in timings being trimmed to an unrealistic level just to please councillors, MPs and business types. This nonsense has now gone. Finally there were some examples where the train was timed to get to junctions around the same time as another train, and regularly got held at red signals for other trains to cross the junction, again causing delay. Some trains have been retimed to avoid such conflicts.

Originally posted by Greybeard
It should be remembered that the train operators are at the total mercy of Rail Track in the punctuality stakes. All it takes is for some cowboy contractor to leave a few clips off a rail or forget to tighten some bolts in a points set and you might as well throw the timetable in the bin. ;)

Indeed, and working closer with Network Rail is another reason why performance has been improved. It has meant more engineering work during evenings and weekends, but the result is less delays caused by temporary speed restrictions being imposed.

Well I travel between Sheffield and Chesterfield every week day and MM is the train I catch if I want to leave on time. The only thing that ever delays it are when a Virgin train is late and they still let it go first (never understand that, it's late so why make another train late!?!).

Virgin are on time mostly but when they're late, they're very late :)

Originally posted by probedb
Well I travel between Sheffield and Chesterfield every week day and MM is the train I catch if I want to leave on time. The only thing that ever delays it are when a Virgin train is late and they still let it go first (never understand that, it's late so why make another train late!?!).

Virgin are on time mostly but when they're late, they're very late :)

Virgin are much more reliable than they used to, although as you say, when there are problems the delays can be big. The thing with Virgin is the route is very long distance and has a lot of major towns and cities and busy junctions, so once a train gets delayed and misses it's booked 'path' the delays just snowballs.

The reason a late Virgin train might be let out at Sheffield in front of an ontime Midland Mainline train is one of two reasons - the Virgin one might be a faster one that doesn't stop at Chesterfield therefore doesn't want to get stuck behind the MML train approaching Chesterfield, also if the Virgin Train it is important to let it try and recover time as it could cause delays to other routes at junctions further south, especially in the Birmingham and Bristol areas.

I,ve always found MML customer service excellent especially in view of the fact that some customers speak to the staff like something they've trodden in.

What amazes me is some peoples blatant disregard for their own and others safety like grabbing hold of a train door handle and trying to yank it open when the trains moving and running alongside it.......

Originally posted by semerpus
I,ve always found MML customer service excellent especially in view of the fact that some customers speak to the staff like something they've trodden in.

I1ll agree with that , for the last 3 weeks i`ve had to travel to manchester on sunday, each week i`ve called national rail enquiries to be told that there are no busses and a normal train service will be running, each time i`ve arrived at the station i`ve discovered that it was in fact the dreaded bus service. The poor people in that portable info thingy on the station are innundated with angry people who have done exactly the same thing and some of them really let rip even though it`s not the fault of the person sat in there. It makes me wonder how they keep their cool!
I have been really p*ssed off with the bus services and also with national rail enquiries and in future i will just book a coach ticket which is far cheaper than a rail ticket especially if i have to go on a coach anyway. Incidentally does anyone know for sure if the midland mainline company has moved their call centre to india?? I overheard a complaint about this recently and wondered if it was true. I usually avoid spending money with companies who follow this route and have recently changed banks and my home insurance too because both companies sent jobs overseas. If this is the case then i will definately use another train company of just use the coach in future.

There's really no excuse as for NRES NOT knowing about Manchester buses on Sundays its in the published timetables which can be picked up at stations and on the station computers NRES use the same system!(althouh some of the times have been wrongly entered)

Station staff told me in January there were NO trains on sundays until March 27th cos of the work.

Midland Mainline haven't had their own call centre for a few years. It used to be contracted to a Sheffield based company called QJump, however when QJump was taken over/merged by thetrainline.com, the Sheffield call centre was closed down and the Midland Mainline contract was subcontracted by thetrainline.com to a firm called Sitel, who have two call centres - the main one is in Bangalore, India, and there is a secondary one doing back office tasks plus group travel in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

However if you are ringing up just for train times you would probably ring National Rail Enquiries, which operates independently. The north of England contract for NRES was won by Ventura who in a similar fashion, has 2 call centres, one in India and the other in Wath on Dearne.

Originally posted by brethren
for the last 3 weeks i`ve had to travel to manchester on sunday, each week i`ve called national rail enquiries to be told that there are no busses and a normal train service will be running, each time i`ve arrived at the station i`ve discovered that it was in fact the dreaded bus service.

There is no excuse for giving out such crap information, as the Sunday service is advertised as buses in all versions of the timetable - published, electronic and online. Perhaps you keep getting a stupid person on the phone who is quoting times for the wrong day of the week!

Well I had the shock of all horrors today…my MML train to London was 7mins early getting in to SP this morning, so I have been ahead of myself all day!! Wonder how often that actually happens?! :shocked:

Originally posted by SpaceCadet
Well I had the shock of all horrors today…my MML train to London was 7mins early getting in to SP this morning, so I have been ahead of myself all day!! Wonder how often that actually happens?! :shocked:

Excusing yesterday (not due to MML), I have found this to be good, especially in their new timetables.

Got into London 10 minutes early, all trains from MML on the arrivals board were showing as 5-10 mins early. It certainly seems to be the way to improving their punctuality. :)

Blimey, so it wasn’t just a one-off then.. maybe the train drivers have got some sort of championship going this year!! :lol: