Technical note - PSA target 2

Improve punctuality and reliability of rail services to at least 85% by 2006, with further improvements by 2008

Coverage

All passenger franchised services in Great Britain (excludes independent, non-franchised passenger operations such as Eurostar, Eurotunnel and Heathrow Express and open access passenger operations such as Hull Trains).

This new target gives an increased focus to the punctuality and reliability of passenger train services, reflecting the immediate priority (of both passengers and the Government) of improving performance. This approach - of focusing on the quality of the passenger service - is consistent with that now being used in the delivery planning process.

Definitions

Public Performance Measure (PPM) is the standard measure adopted by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) to quantify the performance of Britain's passenger railways. It combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure. It covers scheduled passenger services, seven days a week. PPM is always measured at the final destination. All passenger franchised operators are included.

The PPM measures the performance of every individual franchised passenger train against the daily timetable. Where a train fails to run its entire planned route calling at all timetabled stations it counts as late. Cancelled trains are also counted as late.

Trains that complete their journey as planned are measured for punctuality at their final destination. A train's performance is recorded by the automated monitoring systems, which log performance using the signalling system. Long distance trains count as arriving on time if they arrive within 10 minutes of their scheduled time. All other trains count as arriving on time if they arrive within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. The scheduled time is from the '''plan of the day''' timetable, generally the published timetable amended for any planned engineering works or major incidents.

The PPM measure is used throughout the industry on a period (4-weekly) basis to monitor performance.

Statistics, baselines and targets

PPM figures are derived from systems run by The Network Rail Group. These systems provide the data for the various rail performance (including financial) regimes.

Current PPM (moving annual average to end of quarter 4 2003-04) is 81.2%.

PPM data are published for the network as a whole in the SRA publication '''National Rail Trends'''. Currently data is published some 10 weeks after the end of the quarter.

The measure will be monitored on a quarterly basis, to be consistent with the timetable for published data, using the moving annual average to take account of seasonality in the data.

The target date of 2006 refers to the moving annual average at the end of quarter 4 2005-06.

Work is ongoing to enable quantification of the further improvements by 2008.

Other aspects of rail are closely monitored, reflecting the fact that reliability is not the only policy objective (safety and cost efficiency are other key goals) and taking account of aspects of rail performance that may not be fully captured by the PPM measure (e.g. the passenger experience).

Data quality and assurance

The systems that generate the PPM data were formally audited in 1999 by Pricewaterhouse Coopers on behalf of OPRAF (predecessor to the Strategic Rail Authority). A quality assurance audit of the systems that generate data, including PPM if required, will be undertaken as part of the development of the Office of Rail Regulation's new responsibility as the single repository for rail industry data.

Statistics for PPM have bounds of statistical significance of +/- 0.2%.