Train performance along the high speed route from London to the Channel Tunnel (HS1) has seen an significant improvement in performance, according to a new report published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Improvements by London St. Pancras High Speed were found to have been satisfactory despite an increase in overall traffic volumes.
London St. Pancras Highspeed operates the UK’s only high-speed rail link
© ORR
Service delays have dropped to a rate of roughly one in every 400 train services between April 2024 and March 2025, a reduction from three in every 400 services across the previous year.
The Average delay per train now sits at around 4.2 seconds, roughly one third of the previous average, despite an overall traffic volume increase of 8%.
Despite improvements elsewhere, the regulator has demanded that the service operator must seek to improve how it manages its assets, paying particular attention to lifts and escalators, where it is currently experiencing issues.
With a reduction in overall delays, the majority of performance issues along the route are now occurring as a result of low likelihood, high-impact incidents, including both a major points failure and two external power supply disruptions over the last year, with the ORR urging the operator to review how it recovers from major incidents.
Feras Alshaker, Director, Planning and Performance, said:
London St. Pancras High Speed continues to deliver a good experience for its users overall, with reliability and punctuality much higher than the mainline network. As the high speed line nears two decades of operation, it is important that London St. Pancras High Speed learns lessons from its own and other networks to sustain these high levels of performance as its assets age.
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