Great Western Railway Performance

Independent performance data for Great Western Railway from Network Rail TRUST train movement records.

Based on 84 days of data (2026-02-27 to 2026-05-22) | Last updated: 22 May 2026
Reliability
80.3%
ran and arrived on time
On-time (if ran)
87.8%
within 5 minutes
Cancellation Rate
8.5%
of services
Avg Delay
2.5 min
minutes late
Compared to the previous 60 days: On-time performance has declined by 0.6% compared to the preceding period.

Performance by time of day

Period On-time % Avg Delay Services
Morning peak94%1.4 min165,786
Off-peak87.8%2.5 min429,690
Evening peak84.9%2.9 min192,013
Late/early86.3%2.7 min300,648

Performance by day of week

Day On-time % Avg Delay Services
Monday90.1%2 min167,315
Tuesday86.8%2.7 min170,806
Wednesday88.3%2.4 min169,996
Thursday87.2%2.5 min171,335
Friday87.8%2.5 min163,289
Saturday88%2.4 min152,537
Sunday85.6%2.9 min92,859

Monthly history

Month On-time % Avg Delay Cancellation Rate Coverage
April 202687.5%2.5 min8.3%100%
March 202688.1%2.4 min10.9%87.1%

Best performing routes

Route On-time % Avg Delay Services
Penzance to St Ives100%0.5 min97
Avonmouth to Severn Beach100%0.1 min55
XPM to Bath Spa100%0.3 min54
Bristol Temple Meads to Exmouth100%0.1 min51
XFR to Salisbury100%0.2 min51

Worst performing routes

Route On-time % Avg Delay Services
Swansea to Reading0%51.6 min11
Cardiff Central to Fratton3.8%49.7 min26
London Paddington to Gloucester12.9%32.9 min31
Penzance to Reading23.1%39.6 min13
Plymouth to XMG35.4%22.3 min127
View Great Western Railway Delay Repay guide →

How we calculate these figures

These statistics come from Network Rail's TRUST system, which records the actual time every train passes through each point on the network. We receive this data in real time and calculate performance independently.

Reliability is our headline metric. It answers the question most passengers care about: "If I turn up for a scheduled train, what are the chances it runs and gets me there on time?" It's calculated as: (trains that ran and arrived within 5 minutes) divided by (total scheduled trains). A cancelled train counts against reliability, because you can't ride a train that doesn't exist.

On-time (if ran) shows how punctual trains were, but only counting trains that actually ran. This is useful for understanding whether delays are the main problem, or cancellations. If reliability is low but on-time is high, the operator's main issue is cancellations rather than lateness.

Cancellation rate is the percentage of scheduled services that were cancelled, including both full and part-cancellations.

Average delay is the mean delay across all arrivals. Trains that arrived on time count as 0 minutes delay. This tells you how late trains typically are when they don't run to time.

What we exclude: We don't count "off-route" movements — these are signals recorded when a train passes through a station that isn't on its scheduled route (for example, a Heathrow Express triggering a sensor at a Great Western station it passes through). Including these would unfairly lower an operator's on-time score.

How this differs from official figures: The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes official statistics using different thresholds and reporting periods, with post-publication corrections. Our figures are independently calculated and not revised after publication. For official statistics, see the ORR Data Portal.

Full methodology details →

Data source: Network Rail TRUST train movement data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These are independent calculations and are not official statistics published by the Office of Rail and Road. On-time is defined as arriving within 5 minutes of the planned time. For official statistics, visit the ORR Data Portal.