"Worst railway stations named and shamed for first time"

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Widely covered story, this "take" from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Millions of passengers will see train cancellation and delay data published prominently at more than 1,700 railway stations in England from Thursday.

The data will update every 28 days showing statistics for the most recent month in a bid to increase transparency and to hold operators to account.

The government says performance information will appear on large digital display boards, with smaller stations displaying QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code (2D bar code)) codes for passengers to scan on smartphones.

Ince and Elton in Cheshire was the worst performing station for cancellations in the four weeks to 1 February, according to data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road, formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about)).

The BBC understands that the data will not be announced audibly for people with print disabilities but the government says online data will be posted on a new portal which has been made accessible to screen reader users such as those who are blind and visually-impaired.

The concept of publishing train reliability data is not new. The ORR publishes performance statistics which detail the percentage of services that are delayed or cancelled.

Between 1 October and 31 December 2024, some 5.1% of train services were cancelled and only 62.1% of services were on time, according to the ORR.

However, this is the first time that potentially embarrassing information is being proactively presented to millions of train passengers in England each day.

Not, of course, the first time ... Open Train Times anyone?  Interesting to see which stats are generate how from the data.

[John D]

Apparently the data is only going to be displayed at a few stations.

The vast majority of the 1700 will just have a QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code (2D bar code)) code, which (if you can find it) will allow those that have enthusiasm and data to look it up on their own device.

And it's not quite clear what can actually do with the data, to improve anything, apart from huff and pointlessly shout at the QR code

[Sixty3Closure]

Didn't there use to be posters up at each station with the same information or is this something different?

And as John says not really sure what the point of this is. Feels a bit like the NHS reforms promised where you can chose you hospital except they all have the same waiting lists and geography is going to be the main factor for most people.

[ChrisB]

I think the data table is on the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road, formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) web site

Performance at stations

Periodic (4-weekly) data on punctuality and reliability of trains at stations. This management information is being collected and published by ORR for the first time. It includes the percentage of trains arriving at the station within three minutes of their scheduled arrival and the percentage of trains that were scheduled, but did not call at the station.

The timeframe for publishing this on the data portal is driven by when we receive the data and also when any queries on the validity of data are resolved. Therefore, it can take up to 15 working days after period end for the data table to be updated. The latest periodic data from Network Rail should always be treated as provisional as data can be refreshed when Network Rail and operators reconcile their records.

If you have any questions or feedback on this data, please contact rail.stats@orr.gov.uk

More passenger rail performance data on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay are available on our passenger rail performance page.

This British Sign Language video is being shown in some stations alongside advertised train performance data.

There's a station look up at the bottom of that page and a link to the data table.

[eightonedee]

Didn't there use to be posters up at each station with the same information or is this something different?

There were posters with monthly timekeeping and cancellation performance figures for the operating TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) or TOCs.

I don't know how you shame a station - almost as poor a choice of words as "smashing a broken railway"!