Passengers travelling on East Midlands Trains and South West Trains are benefitting from more punctual trains than ever before, according to new performance figures.

Both companies, operated by Stagecoach Group, delivered their best ever performance in April 2010. South West Trains ran 96.9% of its trains on time, with East Midlands Trains closely following with 94.9% punctuality.

Brian Souter, Chief Executive of Stagecoach Group, said:  “This is great news for our passengers. It reflects the continuing hard work of our people to ensure we deliver a reliable railway, backed up by excellent customer service, and we will stay focused on getting even better.

“South West Trains is the UK’s most complex rail franchise. We run nearly 1700 trains a day that are used by 190 million customers a year and commuters in particular rely on a right time railway. South West Trains is already one of the country’s most punctual train operators, so this latest improvement is an excellent achievement.

“At East Midlands Trains, we have been top of the long distance operator league table for punctuality since January 2009. We have made huge advances right across the network since taking over responsibility for the franchise in 2007 as a result of our investment and drive to improve services.”

Reflecting the improvements, Stagecoach Group’s rail franchises also scored highly for performance in the latest National Passenger Survey (Autumn 2009), with 89% of South West Trains passengers satisfied with the punctuality and reliability of services, significantly higher than the 82% average for London & South East operators.  On East Midlands Trains, 85% of passengers said they were satisfied with the punctuality and reliability of services, marking a 6% year on year increase.