Britain’s railway saw record punctuality in August with 94.2% of trains running on time and yet again, Virgin was the most improved operator. Compared to the same period last year their performance went up 3.4% to 93%.

In the national table, Merseyrail came second at 97.7%, narrowly beaten by train operator c2c, who recorded 98.8% – another new record.

The figures were released today in Network Rail’s regular monthly report on train performance.  During the period from 25 July to 21 August, 94.2% of services arrived on time.  This compares to 94.0% in same period last year.

Robin Gisby, director of operations and customer services, said: “August has been an excellent month for delivering a high–quality, punctual service to the millions of passengers and freight users who rely on train services every day.”

In all, 10 of the 19 operators saw their performance improve compared to the same period last year, with Virgin Trains seeing the biggest improvement. The rest saw marginal movements in performance with only three operators seeing significant movement (more than three percentage points).