London Midland performance 'absolutely atrocious', says MP

 
London Midland Pic credit; Elliott Brown
Elliott Brown/Wiki
23 November 2012

The problems of the London Midland train company, including a driver shortage, contributed to a dip in national rail punctuality in the mid-autumn period.

A total of 88.9% of trains ran on time in the period October 14 to November 10, compared with 89.3% in the same period last year, Network Rail (NR) said.

London Midland was only able to run 82.7% of trains on time in the mid-autumn 2012 period compared with 86.0% in the same period of 2011.

The company's driver situation was raised in the House of Commons recently, with Conservative MP Mark Garnier saying London Midland's performance continued to be "absolutely atrocious".

Leader of the House Andrew Lansley replied that London Midland was not yet technically in breach of its obligations, "but if improvements are not seen in very short order, the Department for Transport will need to consider taking action against the train operator".

Today, NR said a number of factors had impacted on London Midland's mid-autumn performance, including a number of wiring problems, cable theft and "a temporary imbalance between trainee and qualified drivers".

London Midland was the worst-performing company for punctuality in mid-autumn this year, with the best company being London to Tilbury and Southend operator c2c, which managed to run 98.4% of trains on time.

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