Scotland’s worst performing train station revealed

The Dutch firm that now operates ScotRail, Abellio, has revealed just how bad its record is for punctuality.

Arbroath station in Angus came out as the worst performing station in the country with just 6.1 per cent of the services terminating at Arbroath in the year up to October arriving on time – within a minute of its schedule.

Second bottom was Ardrossan Harbour, in Ayrshire, with an 10.9 per cent punctuality rate.

It was followed by High Street in Glasgow which recorded a rate of 19.5 per cent and Springburn in Glasgow, on just 22.2 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, 89.6 per cent of trains terminating in Cowdenbeath, Fife, and 89.4 per cent of those completing their journey in Dunbar, East Lothian, arrived within 59 seconds.

Posters in railway stations claim more than eight in 10 trains - 83.3 per cent to be exact - on the network arrive on time.

The official figure used to calculate punctuality is called a public performance measure and it regards all long-distance journeys as on time if they arrive no more than 10 minutes late.

And for shorter journeys - the type commuters make every day - trains are judged to be on time if they are no more than five minutes overdue.

But many commuters regard this as a nonsense.

Now a report released as part of a “transparency” drive by the new operators of ScotRail, Dutch firm Abellio, has exposed the true picture.

It lists the proportion of trains that arrived within 59 seconds of their booked arrival time at every station where at least one service terminates.

For every minute a train is late, passenger satisfaction drops by two percentage points.

Critics last night called for big improvements.

David Sidebottom, passenger director at campaign group Transport Focus, said: “Passengers want their trains actually on time, not up to five minutes late as allowed under the existing rules, so we welcome publication of this right-time’ performance information.

“The rail industry must now use it to deliver big improvements to some of the really poorly-performing services that have been revealed.”

The right time figures also recorded performance at Scotland’s biggest commuter destinations.

Trains terminating at Glasgow Central arrived within 59 seconds of the published arrival time 56.8 per cent of the time while those going to Queen Street reached a figure of 56.6 per cent.

The punctuality for Edinburgh Waverley, Aberdeen and Dundee was marginally better at 60.8 per cent, 76.4 per cent and 71.2 per cent respectively. However, at the capital’s Haymarket station - used by more than 100,000 passengers every day - only 39.5 per cent of trains arrived on time.