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Revealed: A third of West Midlands trains are late

Around a third of all trains in the West Midlands are either late or cancelled, it has been revealed.

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Around a third of all trains in the West Midlands are either late or cancelled. Pictured, entrance to Wolverhampton Railway Station

Birmingham New Street was one of the worst performing stations, with 54.5 per cent of trains failing to arrive on time.

Codsall, which saw 42.7 per cent of trains cancelled or delayed, and Dudley Port, which saw 42 per cent of trains fail to arrive on time, were also among the worst performers.

At Wolverhampton, 38.4 per cent of trains arrived late or were cancelled, at Stafford the figure was 32.9 per cent, and Sandwell and Dudley 36.9 per cent.

The figures were obtained from Network Rail's own running data, based on signal records, and are in stark contrast to the official figures released last month which said 89.8 per cent of trains nationally were "on time".

However, the official figures only measure trains at their last stop, and considers them "on time" if they are less than 10 minutes late for national services, and less than five minutes late for local services.

The new figures, which relate to the period from July 21-27 record the performance at all stations, and considers them "delayed" if they are late by a minute or more.

Of the major stations in the West Midlands, Stourbridge junction was one of the best performing, with just 16.7 per cent of trains failing to arrive on time. Stourbridge Town actually had a 100 per cent punctuality rate, but it only operates a shuttle service to Stourbridge Junction.

At Kidderminster, 28.9 per cent of trains were late or delayed.

Smethwick Galton Bridge saw 31.5 per cent of trains delayed or cancelled, but neighbouring Rolfe Street only 20.4 per cent. For Cradley Heath the figure was 26.5 per cent, for Lye it was 22.8 per cent, and for Tipton 30.7 per cent.

Cannock saw 26.7 per cent of trains delayed or cancelled, Lichfield City 28.3 per cent, while for Lichfield Trent Valley 35 per cent failed to show up on time. In Walsall, the figure was 35.6 per cent.

They showed that Birmingham New Street handled 5,205 trains over the period, Wolverhampton 2,012, Smethwick Galton Bridge 1,858, and Stourbridge Junction 1,619.

Nationally, Virgin West Coast saw 51.4 per cent of its trains late or cancelled, with 4.7 per cent failing to arrive within the hour. Arriva Trains Wales saw 38.5 per cent of its trains failing to make their destination on time, with 1.5 per cent either cancelled or at least an hour late. London Midland saw 35.3 per cent of trains delayed or cancelled, with 1.5 per cent being an hour or more late.

Damien Henderson of Virgin Trains said: “Virgin Trains was the first train operator to publish detailed punctuality statistics over a year ago. Clearly, it is harder to run trains to within a few seconds of the timetable over a 400-mile route, and around 80 per cent of delays are outside of our control, but we always want to do the best for our passengers which is why we make claiming for delays as easy as possible and introduced industry-leading automatic compensation on our West Coast route.”

Arriva Trains Wales said the figures related to a single week which followed a major incident where a church had collapsed, causing major disruption

Lynne Milligan, customer services director for the company said: "As an operator we have been proud to have been in the top two performing train companies in the UK for Right Time Performance for much of 2017, including the most recent recording period, which is thanks to the hard work of our staff and strong partnership working with our Network Rail partners.

“Setting strong right time targets is something we have always aspired to and which will continue to inspire us to give the best possible service for our customers.”