More trains arriving late than before the Hatfield disaster

Rail companies are still failing to match the standard of service achieved before the Hatfield crash 18 months ago, despite an increase in punctuality in the first three months of the year, official figures showed yesterday.

Statistics from the Strategic Rail Authority said almost 20 per cent of trains ran late in the first quarter of the year, an improvement of more than nine percentage points on the figures for the three months before.

But the rise brought performance back only to last spring's levels. It was also far below the near 90-per-cent punctuality by train companies between January and March in 1998, 1999 and 2000, before Hatfield.

Across the full financial year, the proportion of trains arriving on time was slightly down on 2000-01, the fifth fall in as many years. But the SRA insisted the improvement in the past three months was significant, and said early returns suggested further increases in reliability would be reflected in figures for the present quarter.

South West Trains, which operates the huge commuter franchise based at Waterloo, was fined £12.5m last year for running late, cancelled and overcrowded services. The fine is part of the £84m recovered from train operators by the SRA for poor performance.

Theresa May, the shadow Transport Secretary, said: "For the sake of passengers, we are pleased to see an improvement. But a situation where more trains are delayed now than before the Hatfield crash is clearly not good enough. The fact that the proportion of trains running late remains twice what is was before Hatfield is a disgrace."

Richard Bowker, the chairman of the SRA, said: "There are more trains on the network than before. There are also more people on the network. More trains and more people are a good thing, but it makes the system overheat and we have to work harder simply to stand still."

Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, said: "There is a very long way to go to achieve the levels of performance and reliability we all want. The railway industry is increasingly working closely together to deliver significant and sustained improvements."