Wirral Line trains score 100% in new punctuality report

Aug 26 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Heswall News

A RAIL passenger lobby group has held up Merseyrail as the envy of commuters across the country.

It follows the latest punctuality and reliability figures for the network which revealed record performances last month – and a week of 100%scores on the Wirral Line.

In the four weeks to August 22 the operator which was once dubbed ‘Miseryrail’ ran 97.3% of its services on time – its best service so far.

The company achieved 100% reliability for seven days and two days on the Wirral Line and Northern Line, respectively, during the four weeks.

And after feeding the figures into the running average for the year, Merseyrail saw its average performance increase to 95.6% which is another record.

Julie Warburton, manager with pressure group Passenger Focus, said: “Merseyrail and Network Rail have done well to consistently deliver a service that passengers can rely on. Passengers in other parts of the country will be looking on enviously.” She added: “Not all train services are as punctual as these.”

Merseyrail managing director Bart Schmeink said: “It may sound obvious but trains running on time is what passengers want and expect.

“Over the past six years we have improved punctuality bit by bit to a point where it has now become a ‘given’ for passengers.We now need to make sure that we maintain these incredible levels of punctuality.”