REGIONAL train operator National Express East Anglia has reported its best month for punctuality since the start of its franchise four years ago.In the four weeks to April 26, 92.

REGIONAL train operator National Express East Anglia has reported its best month for punctuality since the start of its franchise four years ago.

In the four weeks to April 26, 92.87% of NXEA services arrived at destination “on time” - within five minutes of the published arrival time for all services except intercity services where the national measure is within 10 minutes.

The annual average punctuality of train services on routes operated by NXEA - formerly known as One - is now up to 90.43%, also the highest level of the franchise so far.

All five of the company's routes achieved a punctuality figure of more than 90% during April. This included mainline services from London to Norwich via Colchester and Ipswich (also including the branch lines to Braintree, Clacton and Harwich) where the figure was 90.5%.

On rural routes, including the services from Ipswich to Cambridge, Peterborough, Lowestoft and Felixstowe, the figure was 93.7%.

West Anglia routes from London to Cambridge and Hertford again achieved the best figure, 95.7%, while the Stansted Express service from London to Stansted Airport achieved 91.1% punctuality and Metro services from London to Shenfield and Southend achieved 91.9%.

The latest monthly figures mean that the annual average results for Rural and West Anglia services are above 90% while Metro and Mainline annual results are above 88%.

Having met targets under a joint initiative with Network Rail to improve the overall annual figure first to 88% and then to 90%, the two companies will shortly publish plans to improve performance still further towards a 91% annual average performance

Andrew Chivers, managing director for NXEA, said: “We are pleased to have delivered the best four week period of punctuality for the franchise so far and some of the best performance seen in the region.

“We are committed to maintaining this positive trend and further improving the reliability of our services to a 91% annual average through a new Joint Performance Improvement Plan with Network Rail, whilst also reducing the frequency and impact of major disruptive incidents which cause inconvenience to customers.”