Public performance measure and delay responsibility

The public performance measure (PPM) combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure.

It was the industry standard metric and Network Rail’s regulatory measure during CP5.

PPM is the percentage of trains which arrive at their terminating station ‘on time’ compared to the total number of trains planned. A train is defined as on time if it arrives at the destination within five minutes (i.e. 4 minutes 59 seconds or less) of the planned arrival time for London and South East or regional services, or 10 minutes (i.e. 9 minutes 59 seconds or less) for long distance services.

Where a train fails to run its entire planned route calling at all timetabled stations it counts as a PPM failure.

Performance for 18 August 2024 – 14 September 2024    

The national PPM is 85.8%
This compares to 87% for the same period last year.
The moving annual average (MAA) is 85.3%

More detailed data, including historic punctuality figures, can be found on the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) website.

Term Definitions

Delay responsibility

This chart below shows who was responsible for passenger train delays of 3 minutes or more.

For regulatory reasons, Network Rail is assigned responsibility for delays caused by external factors such as weather, trespass, vandalism, cable theft and fatalities.

Please note, due to the way this data is rounded the total delay responsibility figures can sometimes total 99.9%. This is a system generated figure so cannot be altered.

Download delay responsibility data for period 6(xlsx 15KB)

Term definitions

Full details of the delay attribution rules can be found on the Delay Attribution Board’s page.

To find out more about what can cause delays on the network please visit our Delays explained page.