National train performance figures again show that on average, punctuality is slipping, leading to a total which is lower than the figure for period 6 and for the same period in 2010.

Although there are a number of unpredictable challenges that affect these figures, such as signal failures, cable theft and natural disasters, more must be done to improve performance in the rail sector.

A pattern is emerging of reduced performance, alongside the increase in delay-per-incident, and it is unlikely that it can all be blamed on a series of unexpected and unfortunate events.

These problems have always been evident on the railway, and while poor performance on one franchise does drag down the total average, most of the individual scores had fallen rather than increased.

Only three franchises managed to improve their performance in comparison to the same period last year, which is a worrying figure – particularly because two of these, London Overground and Merseyrail, are already the top performers anyway (and are exceptional cases anyway, in the ways they are franchised, operated, and rarely have to deal with other operators’ services). Southeastern, though, deserves praise – going from 87.8% to 93.7% is not a minor achievement.

Pressure from the ORR last month indicated that formal action may be necessary if Network Rail fails to meet its end-of-year performance targets, and this is looking more and more likely to happen.