UK Train Delay Report: October 2026
1 in 13 trains in Britain was late enough to claim Delay Repay at its final stop in October.
Avanti West Coast was the worst train company, with 30.0% of its trains late enough to claim. The least reliable route was Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich, where 3 in 5 trains ran late enough to claim.
2 to 31 October 2026: every passenger train run by the 28 train companies with a Delay Repay scheme, from National Rail Enquiries' live Darwin data. 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 | 6.6% | 34890 |
| 07:00 | 7.0% | 35574 |
| 08:00 | 7.4% | 35012 |
| 09:00 | 7.5% | 34030 |
| 10:00 | 7.4% | 33701 |
| 11:00 | 7.0% | 33104 |
| 12:00 | 7.1% | 33432 |
| 13:00 | 7.1% | 33191 |
| 14:00 | 7.4% | 33730 |
| 15:00 | 7.7% | 34515 |
| 16:00 | 8.4% | 36772 |
| 17:00 | 9.0% | 38097 |
| 18:00 | 9.5% | 36208 |
| 19:00 | 9.1% | 32842 |
| 20:00 | 8.7% | 30407 |
| 21:00 | 7.8% | 28235 |
| 22:00 | 7.2% | 24979 |
| 23:00 | 6.4% | 16581 |
The month day by day
Share of trains late enough to claim each day. Bad days stand out.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avanti West Coast | 30.0%1 in 3 trains | 1.6% | 3.7% |
| 2 | Lumo | 15.9%1 in 6 trains | 3.5% | 2.8% |
| 3 | TransPennine Express | 15.0%1 in 7 trains | 0.2% | 1.7% |
| 4 | CrossCountry | 14.2%1 in 7 trains | 0.6% | 2.8% |
| 5 | Caledonian Sleeper | 14.0%1 in 7 trains | 4.5% | 4.4% |
| 6 | Gatwick Express | 12.7%1 in 8 trains | 0.0% | 5.6% |
| 7 | Great Northern | 12.4%1 in 8 trains | 0.02% | 3.4% |
| 8 | East Midlands Railway | 11.9%1 in 8 trains | 0.2% | 1.9% |
| 9 | Transport for Wales | 10.2%1 in 10 trains | 0.2% | 2.4% |
| 10 | LNER | 10.0%1 in 10 trains | 1.7% | 1.4% |
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.
- Liverpool Lime Street to NorwichEast Midlands Railway · 56.1%3 in 5 trains
- 2London Kings Cross to Kings LynnGreat Northern · 48.3%1 in 2 trains
- 3Glasgow Central to London EustonAvanti West Coast · 40.3%1 in 2 trains
- 4London Euston to Manchester PiccadillyAvanti West Coast · 39.7%1 in 3 trains
- 5London Euston to Glasgow CentralAvanti West Coast · 36.4%1 in 3 trains
Least reliable trains
The same train each day, most often late enough to claim at its final stop.
- 1The 08:33 Tonbridge to RedhillSouthern · late enough to claim on 17 of 18 days
- 2The 15:51 Liverpool Lime Street to NorwichEast Midlands Railway · late enough to claim on 21 of 23 days
- 3The 05:59 Tonbridge to RedhillSouthern · late enough to claim on 15 of 18 days
- 4The 07:54 Redhill to TonbridgeSouthern · late enough to claim on 15 of 18 days
- 5The 17:48 London Kings Cross to Kings LynnGreat Northern · late enough to claim on 17 of 21 days
Worst stations
Stations where trains most often arrived 15 minutes or more late. At least 200 arrivals in the month.
- 1Kings Lynn36.7%
- 2Pwllheli24.0%
- 3Tonfanau21.1%
- 4Morfa Mawddach18.6%
- 5Penzance18.0%
Engineering works: where trains were replaced by buses
Planned works aren't counted as delays, so they're shown here instead. 43,769 replacement buses ran this month, and 22,008 trains were cancelled in the timetable on the 22 days we recorded it. Routes with buses on every day of the month are left out: they're usually regular bus links, not works. We don't know how many trains were cancelled in the timetable on 2 to 9 October: we only started recording that on 10 October.
- Huddersfield to HalifaxNorthernBuses on 29 days, 8 at weekends
- Millom to WorkingtonNorthernBuses on 29 days, 8 at weekends
- Middlesbrough to Redcar CentralNorthernBuses on 28 days, 7 at weekends
- Brighouse to HuddersfieldNorthernBuses on 26 days, 6 at weekends
- Huddersfield to BrighouseNorthernBuses on 26 days, 6 at weekends
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.
- October is calculated by Railhop from every passenger train in National Rail Enquiries' live Darwin feed from 2 to 31 October 2026: 611,539 trains run by 28 train companies with a Delay Repay scheme. Each train is measured at its final stop against the time the passenger planned for, so a train retimed on the day is measured from its original time.
- Trains cancelled in the timetable by 22:00 the evening before (planned engineering work) are left out, and so are replacement buses (see Engineering works). A train cancelled on the day, cut short or starting short counts as late enough to claim.
- We had a known outcome for 99.7% of the trains run; the rest are left out of every share. The feed was silent for 10 minutes or more on 342 minutes in all. Our outage log starts on 12 October 2026; before that, every hour with trains due had live times.
- Where our Darwin feed missed a train, we used the same train's times from Network Rail's train movements feed and Historical Service Performance data (Rail Delivery Group): 11,362 trains.
- On 2 October our feed recorded about 82% of the usual number of trains, so the figures for that day cover the trains we recorded.
- On 3 to 8 October our feed recorded about 81% of the trains London Overground usually runs on those days of the week. We can't check those days against the timetable, so London Overground's figures for them cover the trains we recorded.
- On 4 October our feed recorded about 73% of the trains Merseyrail usually runs on those days of the week. We can't check those days against the timetable, so Merseyrail's figures for them cover the trains we recorded.
- On 3 to 8 October our feed recorded about 62% of the trains the Elizabeth line usually runs on those days of the week. We can't check those days against the timetable, so the Elizabeth line's figures for them cover the trains we recorded.
- Stations are ranked by the share of arrivals there 15 or more minutes late against the time the passenger planned for, with at least 200 arrivals in the month.
- 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.
October figures calculated by Railhop from National Rail Enquiries' Darwin data (Powered by National Rail Enquiries) and Network Rail's timetable. Contains information of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited licensed under the following licence: networkrail.co.uk/data-feeds/terms-and-conditions. 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. How We Calculate · Report a mistake
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