Article: When a late train isn't 'late'

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When a late train isn't 'late'

When a late train isn't 'late'
Daniel Hurst
September 9, 2010 - 5:35AM

That tardy train you caught the other day? It might not have been "late" – if only you were living in Sydney, Melbourne or London.

With Queensland Rail's performance coming under the spotlight amid an overhaul of its standards, brisbanetimes.com.au decided to take a look at how our suburban train services compare with those provided in other cities.

But we soon discovered how difficult it is to get a clear picture of how each system shapes up, as different operators report results in different ways and even disagree over what "late" means.

At first glance the most recent statistics on late trains seem to suggest the widely derided NSW transport operator CityRail has been able to deliver more peak on-time services than Queensland Rail.

But the figures are skewed because some services that would be classed as late in Brisbane would not be classed that way in Sydney, following CityRail's decision five years ago to relax its tardy train threshold to five minutes – a full minute above Queensland Rail's standard.

The latest Translink Tracker report, released yesterday, shows 92.94 per cent of Queensland Rail peak services arrived within four minutes of the scheduled time in April, May and June.

That was an improvement on previous results, which had cost the operator millions of dollars in fines under a now-scrapped penalty regime for not meeting a 92.4 per cent on-time target.

In Sydney, CityRail reports that it met its own on-time benchmark for 96.1 per cent of peak weekday services on its suburban lines last financial year, or in 96.5 per cent of cases after the operator excluded the impact of major incidents over which it had no control.

CityRail boasts that it has exceeded its target to deliver 92 per cent of peak services on time (within five minutes of the schedule).

Queensland Rail's punctuality figures look a whole lot better than the train service results in Melbourne.

Metro Trains Melbourne took over that city's passenger services late last year and, like Queensland Rail, has attracted fines from the state government for failing to meet on-time standards.

A Victorian government performance report says only 83.3 per cent of metropolitan train services in April, May and June turned up within five minutes of the scheduled time, and overall 87.4 per cent of services were fewer than six minutes late.

But these figures relate to all services, not just peak services that are the subject of NSW and Queensland results.

Overseas, the London Overground also uses a five-minute criterion for defining a late train, a minute more than the standard in Queensland.

The latest rolling 12-month average for the London Overground shows it has delivered 93.71 per cent of services within five minutes of schedule.

But the operator of Singapore's super-busy MRT rail system is more ambitious on the late services front, aiming to ensure 94 per cent of trains arrive within two minutes of schedule.

Official figures suggest it manages to do so in 97 per cent of cases – but the system also has much more frequent trains and much higher patronage.

Robert Dow, from commuter lobby group Rail Back on Track, said Queensland Rail was "not doing too bad" in comparison with other operators.

"When you look internationally QR's doing pretty well; they're doing much better than Melbourne and they're doing better than Sydney," he said.

Translink this week confirmed it would no longer fine Queensland Rail millions of dollars for failing to meet its lateness targets, as part of an overhaul of the performance standards regime.

It will raise the on-time target from 92.4 per cent of peak services to 93.01 per cent, which it said was the five-year adjusted average between 2005 and 2009.

But a Translink spokesman insisted its definition of lateness would remain the same.

"This means that 93.01 per cent South East Queensland passenger trains in peak must be within four minutes of schedules — still one of the strictest regimes in Australia above the five-minute limits of both Sydney and Melbourne," he said.

The spokesman said Translink and Queensland Rail would work together to boost on-time running performance along with services delivered, customer satisfaction, safety, value for money, efficiency of capital spend and fleet utilisation.

Results against these new measures would be released publicly so that passengers could monitor rail performance, he said.

The Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan this week flagged changes to ensure bureaucrats' salaries were linked to performance.

Ms Nolan said Queensland Rail executives would be rated on key performance indicators, with a stronger focus on on-time running, customer satisfaction and safety.

"This is about putting the responsibility back on senior Queensland Rail management," she said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Simpson has called for more information to be released about off-peak services, not just peak services.