The punctuality of passenger trains has improved slightly from the low point in December. However, according to the Swedish Transport Administration, there have been unusually many late cancellations in January as well.
In December, passenger trains had the worst punctuality in several years. In January, the trend was broken. 92.4 percent of trains were on time, compared to 88.2 percent in December. 76,631 of 82,928 passenger trains reached their final stations on time in January. Short-distance trains performed the best with a punctuality of 95.8 percent.
However, an unusually large number of trains have been cancelled late in January as well. The reasons include storm Malik. Bad weather has meant that trains have had to be cancelled for safety reasons. Many sick leave claims among staff in the most traffic-intensive area are another reason.
”"What happened in the Stockholm traffic management area ahead of the weekend of January 29 to 30 is unique. We cannot find any evidence that traffic has ever had to be reduced due to high sick leave among operational personnel at any time in the railway's long history," says Roberto Maiorana, head of the Traffic business area at the Swedish Transport Administration, in a press release.
The authority has also seen that the number of unauthorized people on the tracks has decreased in January. Disruptions due to so-called track running were more than halved compared to December.
The definition of punctuality is the correct time plus five minutes. If a train reaches its final destination 5.59 minutes after the scheduled time, it is considered on time, anything after that is considered late.
Source: TT
