Monthly Performance Figures

Four week period ending 11 October 2008.

Overall our reliability, the number of trains we ran, was 99.2%. Our punctuality, the number of trains arriving within our Passengers’ Charter target was 93.8%.

Factors affecting performance included:

On 14 September services between Wigan and Alderley Edge were subject to 32 cancellations and considerable disruption as a result of an incident involving a non-passenger Northern service at Alderley Edge. This resulted in a number services terminating short of their destination at Stockport.
On 1 October damaged cables impacted on services between Wakefield Kirkgate, Knottingley Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford and Selby causing 31 cancellations and delays.
On 2 October vandalism at Farrington resulted in 31 cancellations and severe disruption to morning peak services from Blackpool between Buxton, Manchester, Liverpool, Colne and York.
On 4 October a signalling failure at Windsor Bridge near Salford caused 53 cancellations and significant disruption to morning peak trains in and out of Manchester and continued to affect services for most of the day.
Cable theft continues to be a major cause of concern for industry performance. This period the impact has been 174 cancellations and 8221 minutes delay to Northern services. The worst incidents this period were:
- On 17 September most services between Darlington and Eaglescliffe were affected by cable theft. This caused 21 cancellations and delays to services between Darlington, Saltburn, Bishop Auckland, Middlesborough, Newcastle and Hexham.
- On 29 September a power failure, caused by cable theft, at Slade Lane and Heald Green, resulted in 32 cancellations, diversions and major disruption to services between Liverpool, Manchester Airport and Southport, as well as services from Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe.
- On 8 October cable theft at Conisborough caused 24 cancellations and delay to services between Sheffield, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Hull and Bridlington during the morning peak.
- On 9 October a cable theft at Milner Royd resulted in 30 cancellations, delays and diversions to services in the Calder Valley area, between Leeds and Hebden Bridge. Further disruption due to a similar incident on the 23 September caused 17 cancellations and significant disruption throughout the day.
Due to the extent of the damage road replacement services and amended timetables were implemented in the short term, where possible, whilst repairs were carried out.

All of Northern’s service groups are currently above the required standards, therefore no discounts apply to season tickets renewed between 19 October - 15 November 2008 inclusive.