Can UK equal the Dutch?

[HowardGWR]

No, not keeping the water out this time, but punctuality. The figures for NS 2013 have just been released and they are 93.6% of services within 5 minutes of lateness (so no 10 minutes allowance there regardless of service type). This is a worsening from 94.2% the previous year. They had the usual weather problems too.

Less than half the pax give a score of 7 or higher for that effort. Perhaps high expectations lead to high performance?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Less than half the pax give a score of 7 or higher for that effort. Perhaps high expectations lead to high performance?

Or maybe our continental cousins run less trains than we do and add more padding between stations, leading to dwell times that would be unthinkable over here, such that it's actually quite difficult to miss punctuality targets. Cynic, moi?

 

[ainsworth74]

Do the Dutch run as many services as we do that cover several hundred miles? Heck do they run as many services as we do full stop? Honest question I don't know the answer.

 

[starrymarkb]

They have less long distance services - the entire NL is only a little bigger then Wales. They do run an intensive service but also offer many journeys as connections rather then through services

 

[Searle]

Do the Dutch run as many services as we do that cover several hundred miles? Heck do they run as many services as we do full stop? Honest question I don't know the answer.

They certainly have a lot of Thalys to Paris and quite a lot of intercity services across towards Germany as well. Probably not as many as us, but they have their fare share

 

[Techniquest]

There are a lot of through journeys still. I forget the exact destinations without looking them up, but one is Leeuwarden to Rotterham Centraal/Den Haag (or at least was last year). Another example being Den Haag-Groingen via Schipol, Amsterdam Zuid and Zwolle. Plenty more but I'd need to get the books out.

NS do a fairly decent job, and co-operation with the OAC is done well IMX.

Still, there are a lot of things we do better and vice versa.

 

[Bastiaan]

Interesting question. Probably there are several factors that lead to this better performance than most British operators have.

1. The Netherlands are a smaller country, with trains running shorter distances. The Dutch don't have long distance trains covering 500 miles in 5 hours. The longest domestic service covers not even half that distance. On international services to for instance Berlin, Brussels and Frankfurt large delays are more common because on larger distances the chances of delay are greater. Most domestic services are in travel distance as well as frequencies comparable with c2c or Chiltern Railways. And indeed those operators are among the better performing train operators.

2. The Dutch railways cancel trains sooner if they are running too late. On most lines trains are running in a 15 or 30 minute interval, so if a train is running say 25 minutes late, it can easily be cancelled because the next train will be there in 5 minutes. Cancelled trains won't be counted in the punctuality performances.

3. Because Dutch and other continental railways don't have to deal with the restricting UK loading gauge, they can run twelve car double deckers with possible train lengths of 340 metres. Around London however, train operators are still struggling to lengthen their trains to 200 or 240 metres single deck length. Therefore they need to run more trains to provide at least the capacity the Dutch have, leading to a more congested railway network, or full trains with irritated passengers, or both.

4. As a Dutch I have the impression we have sorted out our infrastructure better than the Brits. Frequencies of more than 8 trains per hour on a two-track line are a reason for doublin to four tracks. The desired timetable leads to the infrastructure that fits best, in stead of the other way round. There where the desired timetables of two trains conflict with each other, the section of track is declared congested and a study is started to find the most effective alteration to the infrastructure. In the Randstad (large urban area in the West of the Netherlands) there are almost no conflicting movements between trains because of grade separated junctions; a large contrast with railway lines in South-London or in the Northern urban areas.

These are the reasons I can think of to start with, but there are pobably lots of other factors.

 

[Greenback]

My observations over almost 30 years of regular visits to the Netherlands is that the infrastructure there is more capable of handling out of course running than here. They do not seem to have stripped out as much track in the name of rationalisation, which effectively means that in some places a couple of minutes delay impacts on other services and knock on effects mean that what started as a minor delay ends up being a major delay to one service and minor delays to half a dozen more.

That said, it is a smaller network where there are both less long single sections that feed into the rest of the network, and hardly any trains covering distances such as Manchester to Milford Haven or Edinburgh to Plymouth.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

They have a lot more infrastructure than (say Wales) - and a standard pattern timetable (which Wales has largely) - easier to recover from incidents therefore. Having professionally examined their planning , I was quite impressed. They do say though it comes at a cost !

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Would a European country with a larger land area and a well-established rail network than found in the Netherlands be of a better comparison ?

 

[306024]

Interesting question. Probably there are several factors that lead to this better performance than most British operators have.

2. ......Cancelled trains won't be counted in the punctuality performances.

4. ......The desired timetable leads to the infrastructure that fits best, in stead of the other way round.

And Interesting views from Zwolle - thanks Bastiaan. Agree with all of that. I've picked out two points.

When comparing punctuality you need to be sure you are comparing like with like. Our PPM figures include cancellations, trains turned short, or trains that miss out a scheduled stop.

Regarding timetabling, the operator and the infrastructure provider don't appear to have been as widely split as over here. Incidentally the Swiss are also good at designing infrastructure to fit the timetable. Both countries are compact with many interconnecting routes, one is just a bit more hilly.

As everywhere, if the infrastructure is in decent nick, you've got half a chance of reasonable performance.

 

[WestCoast]

Would a European country with a larger land area and a well-established rail network than found in the Netherlands be of a better comparison ?

More similar would be Germany, as it's much larger than NL and also larger than the UK, but has a similar population density to the UK in most areas (unlike say, France or Spain). The comparison has been done many times before though if you search through threads.

 

[30907]

They certainly have a lot of Thalys to Paris and quite a lot of intercity services across towards Germany as well. Probably not as many as us, but they have their fare share

In total about 20 train-pairs a day split between 3 routes, and only one (the Berlin service via Hengelo) is integrated into the national timetable. Hardly significant.

 

[HowardGWR]

Just came back to add that in fact their performance figure does not include international services, so even more 'urban local percentage' than one might think. However, if one compares NL with the services running on (say) Southern, the comparison could be justly made. The NL services are very intensive.

 

[317666]

Doesn't the Netherlands have the busiest rail network in the EU, in terms of number of train kilometres per kilometre of track?

 

[D1009]

Just came back to add that in fact their performance figure does not include international services, so even more 'urban local percentage' than one might think. However, if one compares NL with the services running on (say) Southern, the comparison could be justly made. The NL services are very intensive.

And I believe the PPM figures for SWT, Southern and SouthEastern regularly exceed 93.6%, outside severe weather conditions.

 

[306024]

I wasn't sure about the southern region TOCs ppm so looked at the Network Rail website. Of course recent weather takes its toll on the figures, but was surprised to see the TOC closest to Holland, Greater Anglia, has an MAA of 92%, putting it 6th nationally. With Network Rail's help they must be doing something right, whatever the Which survey says.

 

[anme]

Just came back to add that in fact their performance figure does not include international services, so even more 'urban local percentage' than one might think. However, if one compares NL with the services running on (say) Southern, the comparison could be justly made. The NL services are very intensive.

As a percentage, the number of international trains running in the Netherlands is very low - probably no more than 1-2% of all trains.

 

[dutchflyer]

To follow up on my fellow-countryman:
1.to compare with Wales does not seem very right-with Network South_East likely better fitting in. In EURope-Switzerland is a little larger and has an impressive high-frequency and interconnected network.
2.also note that in times of what NS thinks is adverse wheather, they already trim, the timetable down-like only ev. 30 mins (2 per hour) in stead of the normal ev. 15 mins=4 per hour. Even if the snow then not comes at all......
3.there are many more INTernational routes, all hourly, but these are on the fringes and hardly count: like from Venlo,Heerlen and Groningen(ARRIVA) and Enschede into Germany and from Roosendaal and Maastricht into BE-both by NMBS local trains. I do not know if these trains are taken in the counts-ARV does, because it is mainly a national line (till Winschoten) and runs onward. Figures for NS and the ohter regional local raillines are separate and mostly those locals do far better-but most of them are only single track.
4.the main objection of the Dutch is that trains do NOT wait at even important connections-it is common to see your connection depart and see just the red lights at the back, as your train runs into the platform other side. Which means that even if your train is ''on time (just 3-4 mins late)'' you still have a 30 min. longer trip. Though you get compensation for that (50% money back-even 100% with 60 mins delay on arrival), people simply do not grasp it why this has to be that way. Neither do I-though I know the reasons.
(sorry-money back is easily claimed-but only paid out into Dutch bank acccounts...)