6 ms·

Yeah, lies damn lies and statistics and all that. I'm sure the majority of journeys aren't long distance journeys you'd otherwise replace with flight. Certainly

Yeah, lies damn lies and statistics and all that. I'm sure the majority of journeys aren't long distance journeys you'd otherwise replace with flight. Certainly 50/50 was a bit of a exaggeration but when I regularly traveled between Glasgow/Edinburgh and London it wasn't far off. I received a lot of vouchers for free travel.

pmyteh 5y ago
It's a National Statistic (subject to auditing and rigorous oversight from the ONS) so 'lies' is way off the mark. What it may do is not match your experiences (it varies a lot by time of day etc.), or be perfectly defined for the replacing-flights question. Both LNER (east coast) and Avanti (west coast) are fairly ordinary in long-distance terms. If the question was, say, Exeter to Newcastle by Cross Country I'd expect more extensive delays. Anyway, you can explore the data (including breakdowns by quarter, by long distance vs commuter, and by operating company).[0] [0]: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/table-3114-public-performance-measure-by-operator-and-sector-periodic/ https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passeng...
- Someone 5y ago
  > it varies a lot by time of day etc. That _may_ explain the difference. The officially reported percentage is per train, not per passenger. Passenger onboarding can cause delays (for example, a rural station may, some days, have a school class enter a train. If you make room for that in the schedule, customers will ask why you stop for 5 minutes. If you don’t, the train will be late at its next stop, if that’s only a few kilometers away), so chances are trains with fewer passengers are more punctual. If so, the per passenger percentage of on time trains will be lower. It also is measured only at final destinations. That percentage almost certainly is higher than that measured at each stop (a train that’s late half-way through can try to make up for lost time, but it can’t make up for being late at stops it already had) Finally, there the question how cancelled trains are measured. Possibly, they aren’t counted as late, but do delay passengers.

pmyteh 5y ago

It's a National Statistic (subject to auditing and rigorous oversight from the ONS) so 'lies' is way off the mark. What it may do is not match your experiences (it varies a lot by time of day etc.), or be perfectly defined for the replacing-flights question. Both LNER (east coast) and Avanti (west coast) are fairly ordinary in long-distance terms. If the question was, say, Exeter to Newcastle by Cross Country I'd expect more extensive delays. Anyway, you can explore the data (including breakdowns by quarter, by long distance vs commuter, and by operating company).[0] [0]: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/table-3114-public-performance-measure-by-operator-and-sector-periodic/ https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passeng...

Someone 5y ago
> it varies a lot by time of day etc. That _may_ explain the difference. The officially reported percentage is per train, not per passenger. Passenger onboarding can cause delays (for example, a rural station may, some days, have a school class enter a train. If you make room for that in the schedule, customers will ask why you stop for 5 minutes. If you don’t, the train will be late at its next stop, if that’s only a few kilometers away), so chances are trains with fewer passengers are more punctual. If so, the per passenger percentage of on time trains will be lower. It also is measured only at final destinations. That percentage almost certainly is higher than that measured at each stop (a train that’s late half-way through can try to make up for lost time, but it can’t make up for being late at stops it already had) Finally, there the question how cancelled trains are measured. Possibly, they aren’t counted as late, but do delay passengers.