85% of Arriva trains ran on time from July to September this year

Figures released on Thursday by the Strategic Rail Authority(SRA) show the company, which operates commuter services, is running more trains on time than big inter-city rivals like Virgin and GNER.

From July to September this year 85.4% of Arriva trains ran on time compared with 80.2% last year.

Nationally, performance figures stayed the same as last year with eight out of 10 of trains running on time.

Making progress

Managing director of Arriva Trains Northern Dyan Crowther said the company's improvement was welcome news.

"We are making the progress that we promised our customers and remain committed to bringing further improvements and dealing with the challenges that all train operators face during the autumn and winter months," he said.

Not all rail services in the region fared well in the figures.

Midland Mainline, which operates services between London, the East Midlands and Yorkshire, emerged as the worst performing company with just 62.9% of trains running on time in comparison with 80.1% last year.

GNER's performance on routes through Leeds and Wakefield to London also fell from 72.1% to 67.9%.

SRA chairman Richard Bowker said the rail industry needed to be ruthless in pursuit of improvement and change for its customers.

Chairman of the Rail Passengers Council Stewart Francis said the overall figure of 81% did not give a true reflection of the service rail users were getting.

"Passengers will believe it when they see it," he said. "We need to see sustained improvements in performance and some passenger-focused targets that will hold the industry to account."