Britain's 'worst train service' arrives early for once... but only because Southern bosses tweaked timetable

 
Late train: Passengers at London Victoria
Tom Marshall18 May 2015

A commuter train dubbed the worst rail service in Britain after being late for an entire year has finally arrived early - after the timetable was tweaked.

The 7.29am train from Brighton to London Victoria came in ahead of schedule today, but only after train bosses delayed the arrival time by three minutes.

The service operated by Southern failed to reach Victoria on time - at 8.35am - for a single one of its 240 journeys throughout 2014.

The train operator unveiled its strategy to improve punctuality last week - a new 8.38am arrival time.

The change appears to be bearing fruit after today's train was a full two minutes early, though it still came in after 8.35am.

Speaking on BBC South East Today, Southern's commercial director Alex Foulds said: "We do have days when the timetable works very well but they are far and few between because they rely on everything working perfectly and all the infrastructure working well and that does not happen every day.

"We are trying to put together a timetable that we think people can rely on."

Southern said: "The 7.29am got into Victoria at 8.36am today which was two minutes early."

Other changes to the route include skipping the stop of Wivelsfield in West Sussex.

The 7.32am Brighton to London Bridge is also no longer stopping at Wivelsfield, while an earlier train, the 6.56am Brighton to Victoria, is now starting at Gatwick Airport station.

Southern passengers of late have had to contend with a series of delays.

The worst came at the end of last month when a power-supply failure near Britain's biggest interchange station - Clapham Junction in south London - caused travel chaos.

On that morning passengers on the now-axed 6.56am train from Brighton were stuck on the train for hours.

Passengers should have reached Victoria at around 8.15am but their train was eventually towed into Streatham station in south London shortly before 1pm.

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