Latest rail figures show 2022-23 was worst ever year for cancellations, says Labour

Labour has warned the Conservatives are overseeing a ‘spiral of decline’ on the railways, as new data shows that cancellations in 2022-23 rose to the highest ever level last year. 

Just last week, Rishi Sunak broke the pledge to include legislation for Great British Railways in the upcoming King’s Speech, years after the reforms were first promised. 

More than 40,000 rail services were cancelled across Britain in the latest quarter alone, while punctuality is declining across the entire country. 

This comes only weeks after the government was forced to take control of yet another failing rail franchise in TransPennine Express. 

Labour is warning the government’s system for holding failing operators to account has become a postcode lottery. 

In March 2023, when Avanti West Coast’s contract was renewed, 9.1 per cent of its services were cancelled, compared to only 6.6 per cent of TransPennine services, which has had its contract terminated. 

And some failing operators have massively reduced services without being hold to account, including CrossCountry which has slashed over a quarter of services compared to before the pandemic. 

Labour would reform our railways by taking operators back into public ownership as contracts expire, bringing track and train together and putting passengers at the heart of the system. 

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said: 

“The state of our railways is shocking, and passengers are desperate for change across the network. 

“But the government has given up on reforming our railways even as they continue to fail passengers across the country. 

“The next Labour government will reform our railways by bringing operators back into public ownership, bringing track and train together and putting passengers at the heart of the system." 

Ends

Notes: 

• The Times reported the Government has ditched plans to include legislation for Great British Railways in the upcoming King’s Speech, despite reforms first being announced in May 2021 - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-boris-johnson-great-british-railways-rmnm23grx 

• The latest data from the Office of Rail and Road shows that 2022-23 was the worst ever year for rail cancellations since data collection began in 2014. 2022-23 saw an annual cancellation score of 3.8% compared to 1.9% in 2014-15 - https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2203/passenger-performance-jan-mar-2023.pdf - P13 

• The latest data shows that over 40,000 services were cancelled between January-March 2023 alone. 
  
  
• Only 68.2% of services arrived on time between January-March 2023. This is 4.3% lower than the same quarter the previous year. 

• Punctuality has declined across almost all operators between January-March 2023. TransPennine Express, CrossCountry and Avanti West Coast ranked as the worst operators for punctuality: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2203/passenger-performance-jan-mar-2023.pdf - P20

• The Government’s system for holding failing operators to account has become a postcode lottery:

Some failing operators have significantly reduced the number of trains planned without any action from the Government. CrossCountry, for instance, has reduced services by over a quarter compared to before the pandemic. The operator planned only 18,872 trains between January-March 2023, compared to 25,743 between October-December 2019 - https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/table-3103-historic-passenger-trains-planned-ppm-and-casl-by-operator/ 

• Planned strikes will cause further chaos on the rail network for passengers, as the Transport Secretary has failed to do his job and sit down with rail unions and Network Rail to agree an end to the strikes.