THE Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has called on Network Rail to improve its planning and procedures after publishing its conclusions on the poor performance suffered by passengers on South Western Railway (SWR).

SWR trains arriving on time dropped from 90.5 per cent in 2015/16 to 84.3 per cent in 2017/18. Sixty-eight per cent of this delay was caused by Network Rail in 2017/18 - leading ORR to review Network Rail’s delivery to SWR.

ORR found that despite the number of network-related incidents remaining stable, it is also taking longer to restore normal service and recover the service after a problem occurs. Of the issues within Network Rail’s control, ORR found:

• Contingency plans had not been updated since 2011. These provide options for what action to take in cases of disruption.

• Processes for how to respond to incidents, such as who should be the lead and the steps they need to take, were not always followed. For example, after a fatal incident the relevant signalling centre was not involved in the conference call to agree an action plan.

• ‘Lessons learned’ reviews did not always happen and, where they did, there was limited evidence that the lessons were put into practice.

Network Rail has accepted these findings and the ORR will be monitoring its progress in developing and implementing improvement plans.

Graham Richards, director of railway planning and performance at ORR, said: “Passengers using SWR have faced unacceptable disruption in recent months. When things go wrong, it is essential that Network Rail works efficiently to get back to normal service as quickly as possible.

“Our investigation found that Network Rail has not updated its processes and technology to keep pace with the changes on the route. We will be looking closely to ensure it addresses our findings.”

He added the ORR acknowledges SWR’s performance issues are not down to Network Rail alone, and has shared its findings with Michael Holden who is leading an independent review into the situation.

Rail bosses have also made assurances that the timetable fiasco which left northern passengers facing cancellations, severe delays and slashed services for a number of days last month will not happen in Surrey when changes are introduced later this year.

South Western Railway, which took over the franchise from South West Trains for the Wessex Route including Surrey and the South East last August, has new timetables set for December this year - including the reinstatement of a twice-hourly direct Farnham to Guildford service. 

But Phil Dominey, stakeholder manager for South Western Railways, told Woking councillors that lessons had been learnt and a phased approach to the changes will be taken when the new timetables are introduced.