Trains were cancelled every 90 seconds in 2024, figures show – and it’s only going to get worse next year

Shocking figures show trains were cancelled every 90 seconds in 2024 – with next year looking even worse amid severe staffing shortages.

A record 370,000 train services across the UK were fully or part-cancelled in 2024, according to analysis of the latest Office of Rail and Road data.

Roughly 208,000 trains were fully axed in the year ending Nov 9, while a further 161,000 were part-cancelled – meaning they did not serve at least one of their planned stops.

The rail industry’s cancellation scores count a full cancellation as one and a part-cancellation as half. 

This means in total, 4 per cent of the 7.3 million train trips scheduled were axed making it the joint poorest reliability performance on records dating back to March 2015, when the annual cancellations score was just 1.9 per cent.

The 2015 cancellation percentage equates to one cancellation every minute and 25 seconds, or about 42 every hour.

On Sundays rail services experience the most issues as many companies count on staff volunteering to work paid overtime on that day.

This often means rail operators are left short of workers and are therefore unable to provide an efficient service. 

A record 370,000 train services across the UK were fully or part-cancelled in 2024, according to analysis of the latest Office of Rail and Road data (stock image) 

Great Western Railway, Northern and ScotRail are among the operators affected.

Tony Miles, a rail journalist at Modern Railways magazine, said: ‘Much of [the poor performance] is to do with a failure of successive governments to really resolve the staffing issues on rail, and that includes getting a proper seven-day railway in the terms and conditions [of train crew] – and recruiting enough staff – so they don’t have to rely on overtime and rest-day working.

‘This is putting people off trains and back on to the roads, which is completely contrary to what government ambition should be.’

Mr Miles claimed some train drivers have chose not to work extra shifts since the Labour Government offered a multi-year pay deal to their union Aslef without changes to terms and conditions.

He estimated cancellation rates are ‘probably going to get worse’ because drivers are retiring faster than they are being hired, describing the situation as a ‘ticking time bomb’.

Mr Miles said inadequate funding contributed to the cancellation numbers and that Network Rail was ‘struggling’ to maintain its infrastructure.

He added there was an increase in the number of train staff off work because of illness, with more people staying home when ill since the pandemic.

Michael Solomon Williams, from pressure group Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘Delays and cancellations erode passengers’ faith in the railways.

‘The rail industry and the Government must work together to invest in both the workforce and infrastructure to improve reliability across the whole network.’

Avanti West Coast was the company with the highest cancellations score in the year to Nov 9 at 7.8 per cent.

The rail service runs on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland.

It was closely followed by CrossCountry at 7.4 per cent, Northern at 5.7 per cent and Govia Thameslink Railway at 5.2 per cent.

The best performing operator was c2c – which runs services between London and Essex – with only 1.6 per cent of its services impacted.

In November, the transport secretary at the time, Louise Haigh, said train operators have been asked to prepare for their performance statistics to be displayed at most stations to boost transparency.

Officials are also aiming to simplify ticketing and fares.

Earlier this month, Heidi Alexander, the current transport secretary said: ‘We are clear that we need to move to a seven-day railway.

‘We are too over-reliant on rest-day working and so that’s a big priority for me as we move into the new year.’

Before the general election, Stephen Morgan, Labour’s shadow transport minister, revealed trains were being cancelled every 91 seconds on average in 2023, but this has since become every 85 seconds.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘Passengers are being let down by poor services, which is why we are committed to delivering the biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation.

‘Bringing services back into public ownership will put passengers at the heart of everything we do and allow us to reinvest in our railways.

‘We have been clear we will not tolerate poor performance and will continue to hold all operators to account, regardless of ownership.’

It comes as Britain’s worst railway stations were revealed to be in the North West of England, with at least one in ten trains cancelled at 20 stations so far this year.

Leyland, Poulton-le-Fylde and Blackpool North had the most services axed out of any of the UK’s top 1,000 busiest stations, with at least 13 per cent cancelled at all three.

Also in the top ten worst performing between January and November 2024 were Kirkham & Wesham, Horwich Parkway, St Helens Central, Broad Green, Handforth, Glossop and Deansgate – all with cancellation rates of over 11 per cent.

The worst performing major stations were Preston at 10 per cent, Manchester Victoria at 9.5 per cent and Manchester Oxford Road at 8.1 per cent, according to the National Rail figures compiled by rail performance-tracking website On Time Trains.

Northern Rail, which runs trains through all the worst stations among its network of 500 stops across northern England, has apologised – while Department for Transport (DfT) officials admitted that rail users were ‘being let down by poor services’.