The first month of the difficult autumnal period has seen record performance for Britain’s trains as Network Rail today released the latest train performance results which saw 90.2% of trains arriving on time.

Period eight (18 October to 14 November) is the start of the difficult autumn period that sees train service punctuality traditionally fall by up to five percentage points as trains have to cope with the railways equivalent of black-ice, compacted leaf mulch.  This period saw the first autumnal month ever to see trains maintain performance above 90%.

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer service, said: “To deliver an even better service for passengers we have to deliver consistently across the year. Today’s results are encouraging and are the result of the industry investing heavily in technology and techniques to lessen the impact of autumn.”

In all 17 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year. First Transpennine Express saw the biggest improvement in performance this month compared to the same period last year. Nine operators saw significant movement in their performance (over three percentage points):