Two-thirds of trains from York Station are late, finds damning report

Nearly two out of three trains at York Station arrive or depart late, or are cancelled.

That damning statistic comes from new research by consumer group Which?.

It means York has the second-worst punctuality record of the 30 busiest stations in the UK.

Altogether 65% of York trains were delayed or cancelled – with Manchester Oxford Road the worst of all, with a figure of 68%.

The best station was Brighton, where 26% of trains were delayed or cancelled.

The study analysed data from website On Time Trains to reveal the proportion of trains which were at least one minute late or cancelled from the 10 busiest stations in London and the 20 busiest stations outside London since the start of 2018.

Situation is ‘unacceptable’

Which? managing director of public markets Alex Hayman said: “Passengers have told us reliability is hugely important to them.

“People have been left deeply frustrated at the unacceptably high levels of delays and cancellations which impact on their everyday lives.”

Last month the Government commissioned a review of Britain’s railways which will consider all parts of the network, including accountability, the franchising system and value for money.

“The review must not be used as an excuse to delay real action to improve passengers’ experiences on the trains today,” Alex said.

“As a first step, the Government must introduce fully automatic compensation, ensuring more passengers get the money they are owed.”

York Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Cllr Stephen Fenton said:

• Confidence in our rail services must be maintained in order to bring workers and visitors into York, and ultimately, support a strong York economy.

  The Government and other regional bodies, such as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, must now hold rail companies to account and demonstrate that they are serious about fixing the problems of reliability and capacity that have inundated rail services in the North for far too long.