Transport User Voice February 2025 – Travelling to NHS locations
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Transport User Voice January 2025 – What counts as a late train?
23 December 2024
The passenger view on train punctuality
Preferences regarding train punctuality have been explored in our latest research as part of a significant change to industry performance metrics.
Working in partnership with Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) we ensured that passengers’ views were understood in decisions about how train performance will be measured from April 2026 onwards. The research explored views and aspirations about train performance in general, as well as punctuality and cancellations in particular.
A wealth of insight was obtained from this work, not least that as well as ‘hard’ measures of train performance, passengers want ‘softer’ elements measured too. For instance, getting a seat, cleanliness and passenger satisfaction.
On train punctuality, we found that passengers fall into one of two ‘camps’: those for whom punctual means precisely on time, and those willing to accept a little leeway. Seven in 10 (69 per cent) felt that defining punctual as an arrival within one minute of the schedule was fair, with 14 per cent saying it was too lenient and 16 per cent that it was too strict. While for arrivals within three minutes of the schedule, three quarters (75 per cent) felt it was fair, one in five (20 per cent) that it was too lenient and just one in 20 (five per cent) that it was too strict.
Regarding cancellations, almost six in 10 passengers (57 per cent) felt that any missed stop should count as a full cancellation (as opposed to a partial one) and the same proportion felt that trains removed from the timetable a week in advance should still count as cancellations.
The research also sought to understand what mattered most to passengers: improved punctuality, avoiding cancellations, few disruption days and getting a seat. When asked to make a binary choice between better punctuality and fewer cancellations, around two thirds felt punctuality was more important.
A summary of the findings and the full research report which can be viewed here. Transport Focus’s response to ORR’s consultation on train performance metrics to apply from April 2026 can be found here and correspondence with ORR regarding pre-cancellations can be found here.