Train operating company (TOC) names may differ to their current name. Any new names or ownership changes will be reflected when the data is published for the time period that they became active. Consequently, there may be some differences between the names used in our periodic and quarterly/annual reports.
Average Passenger Lateness (APL) measures the average lateness of a passenger as they alight from their train. It is calculated for each train by multiplying the number of passengers expected to alight at main stations by the punctuality to the nearest minute at those stops.
The national APL score is calculated by the following process:
• Train operating companies are split into service groups. For each service group the APL is calculated by direction of travel, by time of day (peak and off-peak) and by day of the week. Each service group/direction of travel has been assigned monitoring points at which trains are measured against the public timetable.
• Analysis of ticket sale data and revenue modelling is used to estimate the number of people alighting trains at each station by direction of travel, time of day and service code. Each monitoring point is weighted by the proportion of passengers that alight at this station or that have alighted since the last monitoring point.
• Trains that arrive early are assumed to have arrived on time as research has shown that passengers do not value earliness over right time. Where a train fails to call at a monitoring point, APL is assumed to be 1.5 times the service frequency. So if a service group has a half hourly frequency then the passengers expected to have alighted the train are assumed to be 45 minutes late.
• To calculate the national score, the APLs for all monitoring points are aggregated and weighted by passenger numbers. The APL is calculated for trains advertised as scheduled at 22:00 the day before.
One limitation of APL is that it is the average lateness of a train at key locations weighted by the number of passengers alighting from those trains. Whilst each leg of a journey involving connections is measured, the overall success of a journey is not. That is, the delay incurred by missing a connecting service is not accounted for by the APL.