UK Train Delay Report: September 2026
1 in 14 trains we checked was late enough to claim Delay Repay at its final stop in September.
Avanti West Coast was the worst train company, with 22.3% of its trains late enough to claim. Leaving aside routes hit mainly by cancellations, the least reliable route was Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich, where 2 in 3 trains ran late enough to claim.
1 to 30 September 2026: 1,024 routes run by 27 train companies, 82% of their trains, from Historical Service Performance data published by Rail Delivery Group. How we measure
How reliable is your route?
Pick the stations you travel between. We measure the delay where the train finishes, the way Delay Repay does.
When are trains most often late?
Share of trains late enough to claim, by the hour they set off and by day.
| Hour | Late enough to claim | Trains |
|---|---|---|
| 06:00 | 5.6% | 24502 |
| 07:00 | 6.4% | 26007 |
| 08:00 | 6.6% | 25482 |
| 09:00 | 7.3% | 25170 |
| 10:00 | 7.2% | 24837 |
| 11:00 | 7.0% | 24816 |
| 12:00 | 6.9% | 24576 |
| 13:00 | 6.8% | 24724 |
| 14:00 | 7.2% | 25072 |
| 15:00 | 7.4% | 25876 |
| 16:00 | 8.3% | 26664 |
| 17:00 | 8.6% | 27199 |
| 18:00 | 8.7% | 25778 |
| 19:00 | 8.5% | 23241 |
| 20:00 | 8.3% | 20959 |
| 21:00 | 8.3% | 18201 |
| 22:00 | 7.1% | 14149 |
| 23:00 | 6.9% | 7862 |
The 10 worst train companies
How often each train company's trains ran late enough for you to claim money back, under its own rules.
| # | Operator | Trains you could claim for | An hour+ late | Cancelled (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avanti West Coast | 22.3%1 in 4 trains | 0.3% | 2.9% |
| 2 | Gatwick Express (may include planned cancellations) | 21.2%1 in 5 trains | 0.0% | 11.0% |
| 3 | Great Northern (may include planned cancellations) | 21.1%1 in 5 trains | 0.04% | 9.6% |
| 4 | London Overground (may include planned cancellations) | 20.5%1 in 5 trains | 0.01% | 8.6% |
| 5 | Heathrow Express (may include planned cancellations) | 14.7%1 in 7 trains | 0.02% | 14.6% |
| 6 | Thameslink (may include planned cancellations) | 14.1%1 in 7 trains | 0.3% | 3.1% |
| 7 | East Midlands Railway | 13.5%1 in 7 trains | 0.2% | 2.3% |
| 8 | CrossCountry | 13.0%1 in 8 trains | 0.3% | 2.5% |
| 9 | c2c | 12.9%1 in 8 trains | 0.09% | 4.3% |
| 10 | TransPennine Express | 11.1%1 in 9 trains | 0.1% | 0.3% |
Most unreliable routes
Routes where trains most often ran late enough to claim, across all times of day. At least 200 trains in the month, from a train's first stop to its last.
- Ore to London VictoriaSouthern · 79.5% · mostly cancelled or cut short4 in 5 trains
- 2Liverpool Lime Street to NorwichEast Midlands Railway · 65.1%2 in 3 trains
- 3London Kings Cross to Kings LynnGreat Northern · 63.3% · mostly cancelled or cut short3 in 5 trains
- 4Ely to London Kings CrossGreat Northern · 54.0% · mostly cancelled or cut short1 in 2 trains
- 5Eastbourne to London VictoriaSouthern · 51.7%1 in 2 trains
Worst stations
Stations where the trains starting or finishing there most often ran late enough to claim. At least 200 trains, on the routes we checked.
- 1Kings Lynn56.4%
- 2Clapham Junction43.9%
- 3Ore40.6%
- 4Dalston Junction40.1%
- 5Richmond38.4%
Were you on one of these trains?
You usually have 28 days to claim Delay Repay. Check your train in seconds, or let Railhop find every delay you're owed and get each claim ready for you to send.
How we measure
- A train is late enough to claim when it reached its final stop at least as late as its operator's Delay Repay threshold (15, 30 or 60 minutes), or didn't complete the journey: cancelled, cut short, or its first stop cancelled. That's what a passenger travelling the whole way could claim for.
- September is calculated by Railhop from Historical Service Performance (HSP) data published by Rail Delivery Group: every train on 1,024 routes run by 27 train companies, 82% of their trains (50% to 100% per company). Each company's busiest routes were counted first, so quieter branch lines count for less. From October, the report is built from every train we record.
- HSP doesn't say when a train was cancelled. Our own rule leaves out trains cancelled in the timetable by 22:00 the evening before (planned engineering work), but HSP counts them as trains that didn't complete the journey. So companies marked * may be higher here than our own method would show.
- Full cancellations are estimated from a sample of HSP's train records; the share late enough to claim and the hour-or-more figures count every train. HSP gives times to the minute, so a train 14 minutes 40 seconds late counts as 14.
- The Elizabeth line isn't in HSP, and circular routes can't be asked of it, so neither is counted. Buses, ferries, the London Underground and companies with no Delay Repay scheme, such as Eurostar, are left out. These figures differ from ORR's official punctuality statistics, which measure trains against the timetable at each station.
September figures calculated by Railhop from Historical Service Performance (HSP) data published by Rail Delivery Group on the Rail Data Marketplace. Railhop is independent and isn't endorsed by Rail Delivery Group, National Rail or Network Rail. Railhop's summary figures are published under CC BY 4.0; that licence covers Railhop's figures only, not the source data.
These figures are provided as is and may contain errors. Railhop accepts no liability for decisions made on them. Report a mistake
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