90% INCREASE IN LONDON TRAIN DELAYS UNDER LABOUR

10.59.18am GMT Wed 10th Mar 2004

Simon has highlighted train delays

Ahead of the expected Government figures on rail delays later this week, Liberal Democrats can reveal more up to date figures that show every London commuter train service is suffering more delays than six years ago.

Comparing train company figures from four-week periods in January and February 2004, with the same period in 1998, reveals that the railways in London are significantly worse than they were when the Labour Government took over.

The largest increases in delays were:-

· South West Trains with 198% increase in delays

· South Central Trains with 182% increase in delays

· Thameslink with 171% increase in delays

Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate, Simon Hughes MP, said:

"Things can't go on like this. These figures prove what every long-suffering rail passenger knows - commuter services in London are dogged by delays that cause farcical and uncomfortable overcrowding.

"Ministers keep promising that things will get better, yet day in day out commuting into London is expensive, unpleasant and blighted by delays and cancellations.

"The Government will try to spin their figures as a good news story, but the reality is that rail delays are twice as bad when Labour came to power."

ENDS

Notes to Editors follow

· The Government figures on rail delay and cancellation to be published around Thursday 11th March 2004 will only be quarterly data for the period mid October 2003 - to January 2004 making the Liberal Democrat figures - February 2004 - even more up to date than the Government figures.

· Liberal Democrats undertook a survey of the cancellation and delay figures published on the Internet or at mainline stations for the 4-week period: 1st February - 28th February 2004. These were compared with the figures for the comparable 4-week period: 2nd February - 1st March 1998 (from Opraf Annual Report 1997 - 1998, Strategic Rail Authority)

· The figures show that London trains, over the same period, have suffered from TWICE as many delays in 2004 than in 1998.

· Most recent figures on railway delays by Train Operating Company (TOC)

Delays (i)

Train Operating Company Feb-98 Feb 2004 %age increase in delays

South West Trains (ii) 8.0% of trains were delayed 23.90% 198.75

South Central (ii) 8.00% 22.50% 182.25

South Eastern (ii) 15.70% 20.00% 27.39

Thameslink 7.10% 19.30% 171.83

Thames Trains 11.60% 13.60% 17.24

WAGN (ii) 5.80% 13.30% 129.31

Silverlink 5.60% 12.20% 117.86

Chiltern 10.80% 11.20% 3.7

Great Eastern Railways 4.90% 9.90% 102.04

Average(iv) 8.52 16.21 90.26

(i)Delays of more than 5 mins; except GNER/Midland Mainline/Thameslink > 10mins.

(ii)Figures from the separate train lines run by each of these Train Operating Companies were averaged

(iii) Figures for January 2004

(iv) Average figures were adjusted and weighted according to number of services in a four week period for each TOC

NB: Data not collected for other Train Operating Companies