Britain’s struggling railways are finally showing signs of improvement – although train companies are still cancelling more than 900 services per day, The i Paper can reveal.
More than 352,000 trains were part-cancelled or fully cancelled in the year between April 2025 and 2026, according to figures published by the Office for Rail and Road (ORR).
This equates to 4.6 per cent of services and is a slight improvement compared with 384,000 cancellations (5.1 per cent of all services) the year before. It means that 14 of the country’s biggest train companies have reduced cancellations in the past twelve months, including eight of the 10 now under public ownership.
All train companies are due to come under the control of the Department for Transport as their contracts expire and the Government nationalises the industry under the banner of Great British Railways.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told The i Paper it was “great to see” that services are improving “across the majority of publicly-owned train operators”, but she admitted there is more to do.
“We are determined to build on this momentum as we set up Great British Railways, creating a simpler, more dependable network that puts passengers and customers first,” Alexander said.
“We know there is still further to go, and I will continue to keep up the pace to deliver the reliable railway passengers rightly expect.”
The most improved performer in the past year was Northern, which has cut cancellations from just under 7 per cent of services to 4.5 per cent.
The operator runs around 2,500 trains per day across towns and cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.
Northern has been under government control since 2020 when the franchise was stripped from former private transport firm Arriva due to poor performance.
But in the four years that followed, cancellations soared, in large part due to industrial disputes.
State of the railways
Getting worse
- Transpennine – 5.8pc up to 6.4pc
- South Western – 4.9pc up to 5.5pc
- Scotrail – 2.54pc up to 2.55pc
- London Overground – 4.6pc up to 5.2pc
- Crosscountry – 9.3pc up to 10.5pc
Improved – but still cancelling
- Avanti – 7.7pc down to 7.1pc
- c2c – 2.32pc down to 2.31pc
- Chiltern – 2.7pc down to 2.2pc
- east mids – 4.8pc down to 4.7pc
- Elizabeth – 4.8pc down to 4pc
- govia Thameslink – 6.9pc down to 6.6pc
- great western – 5.5pc down to 4.9pc
- greater Anglia – 2.19pc down to 2.12pc
- LNER – 4.8pc down to 3.6pc
- Merseyrail – 5pc down to 3.8pc
- Northern – 6.99pc down to 4.5pc
- Southeastern – 3.5pc down to 3pc
- TfW – 7.3pc down to 5.2pc
- West Mids – 6.1pc down to 5pc
Source: Office for Rail and Road (ORR)
The company frequently came under fire from Andy Burnham in his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, who blamed “poor” and “aggressive” management in an interview with The i Paper last year.
Burnham, who is now widely expected to become Labour’s new prime minister, has backed rail nationalisation and is expected to continue with plans for Great British Railways.
It has also been rumoured Burnham wants to look at further devolving powers to regional mayors, which would allow them to have more control over the rail network in their area.
Warrick Dent, the recently-appointed Chief Operating Officer at Northern, said improvements in the last year have come in part because of a new reduced timetable, which has meant fewer services running on Sundays, but also fewer cancellations.
“A big chunk of what has been achieved has been through the introduction of a temporary timetable, on a Sunday which has really helped us stabilise,” he said.
Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election, setting up his return to Parliament and a potential challenge to Keir Starmer for the premiership (Photo: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty)
Northern has also reorganised its management so that it now has six “directors of service delivery” which replicate the existing mayoral combined authorities in their patch; Liverpool, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the North East.
Previously, only three regional directors were responsible for much larger geographical areas.
Dent said the shake-up provides more local accountability and has allowed the directors to focus solely on improving performance.
“That’s really where GBR [Great British Railway] will look and feel very different for the rail industry, it will have much closer regional alignment with the mayors and as that goes through we certainly believe we are in a strong place with relationships with levels of trust and transparency,” he added.
Dent also credited nationalisation with allowing Northern and other train operators to move away from a “blame” game on causes of cancellations and provide more long-term financial certainty.
Critics have suggested the industrial disputes which have plagued the railways are unlikely to disappear under nationalisation.
Dent said at Northern he feels the trade unions are “supportive” of Great British Railways and that it will allow “inconsistencies” between train companies to be standardised.
But he admitted: “I think it’s fair to say it is a period of change, so we are on a journey with the trade unions, we need them to come on that journey with us and be prepared to acknowledge that the industry is going to change and get better as a result.
“What we need to be is open and honest and say it how it is. I’m not saying there won’t be bumps in the road, I think there will be, but we have to navigate through those.”