The UK’s worst train operators have been revealed, with CrossCountry, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway topping the table for most cancellations in 2026, according to official data.

Local Insider used the industry-standard ‘period cancellation score’ based on statistics released by the Office of Rail and Road covering the first three months of this year. It found that 6.8% of all CrossCountry services were either fully or partially cancelled during that time period – the highest proportion of any of the 23 operators analysed.

Avanti West Coast follows close behind with a 6.4% cancellation rate, then East Midlands with 4.8% and Govia Thameslink on 4.4%.

The other end of the table outlines the best performing operators, with Hull Trains ranking as the most reliable with a cancellation score of just 1.3%, followed by Chiltern Railways (1.5%) and both ScotRail and c2c (1.6%). 

The figures come halfway through a wide-ranging renationalisation process, with a total of 11 major train operators being brought into public ownership by either the UK Government or devolved governments so far. While the figures do not show a clear trend for efficiency based on either public or private ownership, it is notable that the top five worst-performing operators are all privately-owned. Somewhat of an exception is West Midlands Trains, rated the fifth worst operator with a cancellation rate of 4.2%. It was transferred to public ownership halfway through the period during which the data was collected.

Publicly owned operators including ScotRail (1.6%) and Southeastern (1.8%) are among the most reliable in the country, while operators that were brought into public ownership due to previous failures, such as TransPennine Express (3.9%), are now performing significantly better than their private counterparts like Avanti.

However, some privately-owned services are also leading the pack in terms of efficiency, with Hull Trains having a cancellation rate of just 1.3%, and Lumo at 3.3%. These operators tend to run fewer, more specific routes, which are easier to maintain higher reliability on.

The Department for Transport recently announced the first new station that will open under the state-owned Great British Railways company. Cambridge South, which is located next to Cambridge Biomedical Campus, will start providing transport from 28 June. The project to build the new station was primarily funded by a £250m government investment.