Network Rail told to cut disruption by a third

The Office of Rail Regulation has told Network Rail it wants the maintenance company to cut disruption from engineering work by 37% over the next five years.

It has also ordered Network Rail to improve the way it manages engineering work in order to reduced unplanned delays when work overruns, according to the Guardian.

The call follows a series of overruns in engineering work on the West Coast Mainline at the New Year, which saw Network Rail fined £14m.

The most serious of the overruns occurred on overhead line engineering work at Rugby.

Despite this, figures showed that 90.1% of trains ran on time in the period April to June this year - the best for 10 years.

ORR chief executive Bill Emery said: "The latest figures are excellent news for most passengers. However, the regular closure of parts of the network for engineering work causes substantial disruption and inconvenience to many passengers and freight customers.

"Over the next five years NR must continue to carry out a full schedule of maintenance and renewal of the infrastructure, together with a massive programme of enhancements to increase network capacity."