The dataset on the ORR website (
http://orr.gov.uk/statistics/published-stats/additional-datasets) only goes to Q2 2015-16, unless I'm missing something.
Q1 2014-15 shows 324 CaSL (cancelled and significantly delayed), compared to 423 Q1 2015-16; an increase of about 30%.
Q2 2014-15 shows 504 CaSL, compared to 725 Q2 2015-16, again an increase of about 30%.
As the only thing that has changed is Brian Souter, of course mentioning him is relevant.
And yet Brian Souter "runs" two of the better performing TOCs (I have severe issues with some of his political views, however that shouldn't cloud my judgement over his transport operations, which on the whole aren't too bad)
SWT easily is the best of the ex Southern Region franchises and EMT have a pretty good reputation, so no it probably isn't Souter's fault!
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As someone who knows about the industry I don't disagree, but to the end customer it is simply not their concern. They are simply selecting suppliers - they can select rail, they can select coach, they can select air or they can select car. If one supplier is inadequate, it is not their problem why it is inadequate.
The railway industry really needs to start thinking like that.
In the end, if, say, BA flies from Heathrow, and BA flights are often delayed because of Heathrow operations, I will select an airline who do not use Heathrow. It doesn't matter that they have little choice to me as a customer, as I do have a choice of another mode of transport.
The railway has one major disadvantage, and yes most customers will know and understand it.
On the road, if the motorway is blocked, you can divert around it. Yes you'll have delays but on the whole it won't be over much.
In the air, you can quite often make up time. Pilots can ask to go direct to a certain waypoint, and if the route is clear, ATC may well grant it, or they could grant a different altitude to fly above weather.
On the rails, if a train breaks down in front of you or there is a dewirement or a signal failure, that's it, nothing moves unless you have a slow line, but that normally won't have many paths available, so there will be delays.
The railways do care about passenger perception and about disruption, but they're rather hampered by an infrastructure that is falling apart at the seams due to decades of chronic underinvestment. In contrast the roads (in general) are in far better shape because they have had money thrown at them.
There's no quick fix either. To bring it all to standard will take 10-15 years of solid renewal work, lots of disruption and lots of money (in addition to regular patch and mend to try and hold the system together and planned maintenance on the renewed bits).
That's if the Government will allow Network Rail the money to do it. They seem to love to finger point at Network Rail, who occasionally deserve it, however most of it is not of their doing.
The majority of customers on the railway won't go elsewhere, because they can't. Commuters are rather stuck.
