Britain’s rail network has got to a point where we’ve all come to expect some sort of disruption, whether that be because of strikes or otherwise. Even so, while we already know which train stations are the worst for cancellations, it would be helpful to know which train operators we can trust the most (or least) to get us from A to B.
As luck would have it, accident compensation experts at Claims.co.uk have crunched the data to find out just that. Researchers looked at passenger rail performance for over 20 British train companies between 2018 and 2022 to uncover which had the highest percentage of cancelled or significantly late trains.
Named the least reliable was TransPennine Express, which covers routes across Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow. In the four-year period, the study found that 7.95 percent of all its trains were either cancelled or significantly delayed. Only 57 percent of its trains were actually on time, which is 18 percent below the national average.
Avanti West Coast ranked as the second least reliable operator. Between 2018 and 2022, 7.58 percent of its services faced cancellation or severe disruption and a mere 43.5 percent arrived to the platform bang on time.
Rounding out the UK's top three most unreliable train operators was London North Eastern Railway, which saw 6.81 percent of trains delayed or significantly late, and only 62.9 percent on schedule. Here's the full list of operators you should be wary of in 2024, according to Claims.co.uk:
- TransPennine Express
- Avanti West Coast
- London North Eastern Railway
- Caledonian Sleeper
- Govia Thameslink Railway and West Midlands Trains
- CrossCountry
- TfW Rail
- Northern Trains
- South Western Railway
- Southeastern
But it’s not all doom and gloom in the locomotive world. Right now, you can now get your hands on some train tickets for a right bargain thanks to the Great British Rail Sale.
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