The rail firm operating long-distance trains between London, Manchester and Scotland remains the least punctual in the UK, according to latest figures.
Avanti West Coast had just 41.1 per cent of its trains arrive on time between July and September, down 5.2 points on the same period a year earlier and a fraction worse than its performance between April and June.
Avanti also cancelled 5.7 per cent of the 22,500 trains - almost 1,300 trains - it had planned to run over the three-month period, 1.8 points up on a year earlier.
Northern, the troubled operator in the North of England, cancelled more than 18,000 trains, while London North Eastern Railway cancelled more than 1,000.
The figures could intensify calls for the Government to change the schedule of which rail contracts it renationalises first.
Avanti’s contract is not due to have a first expiry date until October 2026 but Rail Minister Lord Hendy told the transport select committee this week that “space” existed in the Department for Transport’s schedules, should there be a need to bring in-house earlier than planned an operator that was regarded to be failing passengers.
However, with journeys between Euston and Glasgow typically taking around four and a half hours, Avanti is more likely than most operators to fall foul of the 10-minute window for arriving on time.
Passengers whose journeys are delayed can reclaim between 25 per cent and 100 per cent of their fare via the Delay Repay system, depending on the length of the delay.
Avanti did not “pre-cancel” any trains in advance of the day of travel, unlike rival long-distance operator London North Eastern Railway and Northern, both of which are already under Government control after previous failings.
When LNER’s pre-cancelled trains were added to those axed on the day, it had a 7.4 per cent cancellation rate – second worst after Northern trains, which cancelled or pre-cancelled 8.7 per cent of services.
LNER planned to operate 13,800 trains while Northern planned to run 212,000 - meaning they cancelled about 1,000 and 18,000 trains respectively.
Some 57 per cent of Avanti’s cancellations were attributed to the operator, most likely due to a shortage of drivers or train crew.
The remainder of cancellations were likely to be due to problems with the Network Rail infrastructure.
Avanti West Coast - which has launched a low-alcohol beer to cut boozy train journeys over the Christmas period - said its performance had improved more recently.
Across the UK’s rail network, the figures, from the Office of Rail and Road, revealed that 56,900 trains were cancelled and 43,400 were part cancelled out of a total of 1.9m planned services.
The cancellations figure was 4.2 per cent, up 0.7 points. This is a weighted score which counts full cancellations as one and part cancellations as half.
But more trains were planned in the three months than at any time since the pandemic - 104,000 more trains than a year earlier.
There were no rail strikes over the three-month period but major disruption was caused by events including Storm Lilian in August, a track fault on the Elizabeth line at Paddington and a lineside fire at New Cross Gate.
Greater Anglia, which is due to be renationalised next Autumn, had the best punctuality score of 85.6 per cent of trains arriving on time.
Punctuality on the Elizabeth line was down slightly to 81.3 per cent of trains.
South Western Railway, which will be the first network to be renationalised, ran 68.8 per cent of trains on time, down 1.2 points on a year earlier.
Across the industry, passenger rail performance for the main measures of punctuality and reliability.
The On Time punctuality measure, which measures arrivals at each station along the route, was 67.7 per cent.
The Public Performance Measure (PPM), which measures arrival times at the final destination, 85.2 per cent of trains were punctual.
Avanti sources said the firm was only directly responsible for about a quarter of its “on time” delays.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “While we are not in the position we want to be in terms of overall performance, there has been a significant improvement in the latter part of 2024.
“We were responsible for 25 percent of delays while the remaining three quarters of these were a result infrastructure issues, external factors, such as weather or trespass, or a due to other operators.
“We recognise our customers deserve a reliable service and we are working closely with industry partners, including Network Rail, to make sure our operation runs better, day in day out.
“We have developed a joint performance plan to deliver this. As a result of the progress we have made since this latest quarter, our overall cancellations reduced to 4.3 percent in the four-week period ending November 9, which was the lowest for over a year.
“With our new Evero fleet, refurbished Pendolinos trains as well as the introduction of new timetable with more services, we hope to build on the good work produced by all of our teams and industry partners.”
