Service Performance

We know from our customer surveys that service performance is one of the strongest influencers of customer satisfaction.

UK Bus

In our UK Bus division we measure our punctuality (how often the bus arrives on time) and our reliability (the number of scheduled services). We are the only bus operating company to make this information freely available online (through our operating company websites). We also share this information with our local authority partners to identify measures for improving performance.

Average punctuality and reliability over the past 12 months has been consistent with previous years. This is largely due to poor performance during November/December 2010 due to the difficult weather conditions.

Since this time we have been working to improve the information available to our passengers during disruptions with the introduction of live updates on bus websites, SMS updates and use of social media.

UK Rail

We report our rail service performance using the Department for Transport's Public Performance Measures (PPMs): these combine punctuality and reliability into a single performance figure and indicate performance of individual trains against timetable.

In line with the national average PPM performance, PPM performance deteriorated slightly in all our train operating companies apart from First Hull Trains. Severe weather conditions were the main contributory factor. In First Great Western we faced additional challenges related to the reliability of the infrastructure which has also affected performance. We have been working closely with Network Rail to address these issues and trends improved in the spring of this year.

There has been no change in the number of cancellation-free days: the cancellation rate has remained steady with only a marginal increase of 0.2%.

Winter weather

We continue to develop solutions that will improve service delivery during severe weather conditions.

At an operational level, weather forecasts will be used to develop daily contingency timetables. We will help our customers make informed decisions about their travel options by providing sufficient and accurate real-time information. Proactive messages can now be sent to followers on Twitter, Facebook and to our SMS subscribers where available. We have also improved our websites to withstand the high volume of visits experienced at these times.

First ScotRail is trialling polytunnels and train skirts across the Scottish fleet. The inventive de-icing polytunnels use hot air blowers to disperse ice and snow from trains, while the skirts remove existing ice from the undercarriage and prevent it from reforming. Both mechanisms are biodegradable and non-hazardous.

North America

In North America many of our contracts include a variety of performance targets. We monitor our overall progress against annual targets on a number of common contract measures as shown below.

On-time performance remains high in First Transit. Greyhound performance was impacted by the winter weather and a reduction in the active fleet size. On average 30-40 buses are being refurbished and not available for operation, which can impact on-time performance during peak times. On-time performance in the major Northeast markets remained at over 90% and the new Greyhound Express service in the Midwest was at 95% or better.