GA Hyperbole?

[vinnym70]

I know everyone needs a good bit of PR but, for me, screaming about record punctuality when you have a nice shiny new fleet AND significantly reduced service patterns over the year as a whole isn't really kidding anyone.

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/abo...er-anglias-most-punctual-routes-in-its-record

Over the past 12 months, Greater Anglia has seen record-breaking punctuality across all of its routes – recording its best ever annual average punctuality of 94.81 per cent.

The company runs a wide variety of routes and services from London Liverpool Street to Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

These range from the busy London Liverpool Street to Norwich, Cambridge North and Southend Victoria services to more rural lines such as Ipswich to Lowestoft or Norwich to Great Yarmouth.

Greater Anglia can now reveal which were the top ten most punctual routes in 2021.

Position	Route	Percentage of traina arriving on time (annual average)
1	Norwich to Great Yarmouth	98.35%
2	Marks Tey to Sudbury	97.48%
3	Norwich to Lowestfoft	97.33%
4	Norwich to Sheringham	97.16%
5	Ipswich to Felixstowe	96.28%
6	London Liverpool Street to Southend Wickford to Southminster	95.67%
7	London Liverpool Street to Harwich Town	95.56%
8	Norwich to Cambridge / Stansted Airport	95.48%
9	London Liverpool Street to Ipswich / Norwich	94.76%
10	Ipswich to Lowestoft	94.65%

I doubt it's possible to separate out the benefits of the new fleet versus everything being smoother with a much less intensive timetable?

 

[306024]

In my experience as my local TOC GA are generally very reliable. Normally delays are infrastructure related or due to other operators, and cancellations due to traincrew shortage are rare.

However PR and spin is also one of their more skillful attributes, and of course here they aren't quite comparing like with like. New faster trains running in old schedules helps, but the big drop in passenger numbers in the peak does too.

 

[Bayum]

Why shouldn’t they? They spent a lot of £££££££££s on the fleet and have achieved higher punctuality targets than before. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to compare like for like, how would you propose they do that?

 

[Horizon22]

I think pretty much all TOCs had their best year of performance for many years in 2020/2021 which to anyone with even a vague understanding of railway operations won't be a shock. I do cringe slightly when I see communications or press releases regarding this - hardly surprising that if you reduce the intensity, free up capacity and remove a significant number of passengers (especially at peak time), that many of the common delay & cancellation reasons disappear! Some individuals in performance roles seem to pat themselves on the back about this, whilst others put heavy caveats around the why and seek to learn lessons that can still be applied in a busier railway.

That being said, its not hyperbole if the stats are true, and the railway can always use good PR.

 

[vinnym70]

Stats mean different things to different people - what's the average commuter to make of GA having a record breaking year for punctuality?
Does it make them more inclined to use the railway when they return to work? I'm sure that's what GA (and the government) are hoping for but the release doesn't reflect the reality of significanlty reduced passenger flows and significantly reduced timetables.

And while GA isn't a terrible operator on their mainline flows, the resilience of branch services isn't ideal - but also potentially hidden in this breakdown by being lumped in with wider routes.

 

[Bodiddly]

Why shouldn’t they? They spent a lot of £££££££££s on the fleet and have achieved higher punctuality targets than before. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to compare like for like, how would you propose they do that?

I agree. They've done great in recent months to keep up with the ongoing situation regarding Covid. I spent a whole day recently travelling on the Network and not one train was affected. Apart from a cancellation along the East Suffolk line which I was going to use to go back to Ipswich and which I'd already decided I couldn't spare the time for, I went from Liverpool St- Norwich-Cromer-Norwich-Great Yarmouth-Norwich- Ely- Peterborough- Ipswich- Colchester-Liverpool Street.
Every train on time and great onboard staff as well.
No TOC is perfect just now and I believe the staff are always doing their best.

 

[dk1]

And while GA isn't a terrible operator on their mainline flows, the resilience of branch services isn't ideal - but also potentially hidden in this breakdown by being lumped in with wider routes.

I’m confused by what you mean by the resilience of branch line services not being ideal. We’ve never had it so good here in East Anglia.

 

[306024]

I agree. They've done great in recent months to keep up with the ongoing situation regarding Covid. I spent a whole day recently travelling on the Network and not one train was affected. Apart from a cancellation along the East Suffolk line which I was going to use to go back to Ipswich and which I'd already decided I couldn't spare the time for, I went from Liverpool St- Norwich-Cromer-Norwich-Great Yarmouth-Norwich- Ely- Peterborough- Ipswich- Colchester-Liverpool Street.
Every train on time and great onboard staff as well.
No TOC is perfect just now and I believe the staff are always doing their best.

Hmm…. I’d agree with all of the above apart from being forced into a modified Sunday service on the GEML recently. A decision that looks likely to be reversed soon as being a step too far. We’ll never know how much of that was at the insistence of the DfT but there you go.

Yes the staff have always been good, both guards on my trains today were very approachable and helpful answering passengers questions.

 

[vinnym70]

I’m confused by what you mean by the resilience of branch line services not being ideal. We’ve never had it so good here in East Anglia.

Braintree branch is a good example - and Southminster. Anything going wrong on the mainline tends to knock these services massively when they're already sparse. I fully appreciate there's no easy answers other than perhaps isolating these as true branches with no through services which, whilst it would be unpopular, wouldn't be that awful in relative terms.

And yes - the franchise is probably in the best shape it's been for a long time. Staff are always good, new trains can only be a bonus but the reality is that 2021 proving record performance isn't comparing like with like. Perhaps 2022 will give a better measure but punctuality is only ever part of the measure. I'm pretty sure the folks who've endured the weekday Sunday service of late will be happy their trains have been on time but that will be balanced by having been stuffed into very crowded trains as the their employers expect them to return to the office in line with government guidance.

 

[robbeech]

I don’t think it’s fair to judge any service over the past 2 years without taking lots of things into account.

I agree it’s poor form to show off about things being so “good” when service levels are currently decimated in some areas (for whatever reason) as it does seem a bit like being kicked whilst you’re down for their passengers.

I remember David Horne of LNER having a proud showing off moment one day a few tears back when they achieved 100%. They’d run about 20% of the standard service with massive padding at each end. It was a real kick in the teeth for tens of thousands of passengers crammed into the (all be it punctual) trains.

 

[185143]

I had a day out in East Anglia in March 2020, predominantly on the 755s. Out for the full day, something like 07:00-23:30. Not a single minute of delay. Can't think of any other days I've done that tbh.

 

[dk1]

Braintree branch is a good example - and Southminster. Anything going wrong on the mainline tends to knock these services massively when they're already sparse. I fully appreciate there's no easy answers other than perhaps isolating these as true branches with no through services which, whilst it would be unpopular, wouldn't be that awful in relative terms.

And yes - the franchise is probably in the best shape it's been for a long time. Staff are always good, new trains can only be a bonus but the reality is that 2021 proving record performance isn't comparing like with like. Perhaps 2022 will give a better measure but punctuality is only ever part of the measure. I'm pretty sure the folks who've endured the weekday Sunday service of late will be happy their trains have been on time but that will be balanced by having been stuffed into very crowded trains as the their employers expect them to return to the office in line with government guidance.

Now I don’t look at Southminster or Braintree as Branch lines so that’s where we are getting crossed lines. Those I’m talking about are doing wonders when it comes to reliability.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Many new trains have massively reduced reliability for operators so I wouldn't count introducing new fleets as something to put against them! They have achieved good figures in spite of introducing new trains.

 

[Bikeman78]

I know everyone needs a good bit of PR but, for me, screaming about record punctuality when you have a nice shiny new fleet AND significantly reduced service patterns over the year as a whole isn't really kidding anyone.

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/abo...er-anglias-most-punctual-routes-in-its-record

I doubt it's possible to separate out the benefits of the new fleet versus everything being smoother with a much less intensive timetable?

I've spent a lot of time clattering about on class 317s. The only delays I can think of in two years were caused by a balloon in the OHL at Broxbourne and a problem with a level crossing near Harlow. Other than that I'm struggling to think of any delay over five minutes. The trains performed faultlessly.

 

[tbtc]

I agree with @YorkshireBear - introducing a brand new fleet to pretty much completely replace your existing trains is a huge risk, so it's worth praising a TOC who've managed to do so pretty seamlessly (compared to the well documented problems with the 195/331/800/801s etc)

But, It's a nice bit of free PR at a time when some businesses will be demanding staff return to offices - you don't even have to pay someone to dress up in a daft costume and stand on the concourse at Liverpool Street for a morning - it's a good news story that only requires a paragraph to tell (so that people will hopefully not worry too much about the fact that 2021 wasn't a "typical" year) - people are quick to diss the railway so let's share a bit of positive sounding news (and also praise the staff who've kept the railway working in pretty unusual circumstances - good if TOCs are seen to be praising the people who've coped with everything that 2021 threw at them)

 

[Bald Rick]

I’m genuinely surprised about this. Not the story, but that someone has raised it now, when GA have been putting out similar stories for most of the last 20 months.

 

[paulmch]

To be fair to them the 755s have operated to more or less a normal timetable for quite a while now, and they are very punctual in my experience. Admittedly this isn't scientific but a quick glance at my railmiles stats page shows just *one* minute of delay in 29 journeys (18 hours and 778 miles of travel).

 

[TheEdge]

To be fair to them the 755s have operated to more or less a normal timetable for quite a while now, and they are very punctual in my experience. Admittedly this isn't scientific but a quick glance at my railmiles stats page shows just *one* minute of delay in 29 journeys (18 hours and 778 miles of travel).

My entire 2021 consisted of 820 journeys (pretty much all on GA), 4w 10h 18m on trains with only 10h 23m delay. Baring in mind 3 of those hours were on one terrible days that's quite an impressive total.