The London Overground is a breath of fresh air in British rail punctuality!

Forget Virgin Trains, forget the Transpennine Express, you can even forget the London Underground, as it is the London Overground that has been named the most punctual railway in Britain.

According to a report from Network Rail, the London Overground (LO) has the most number of trains arriving on time consistently, with nineteen out of twenty LO trains never being a minute late.

Compared to the likes of Switzerland and Germany where the trains run like clockwork, Great Britain does not have a good reputation when it comes to rail travel.

The negativity surrounding British railway services was somewhat highlighted by new figures released by Network Rail, which revealed that the national average for train punctuality in the UK is 92.9%, with some train lines, including Virgin and the East Coast, barely managing to get 85% of their trains running on time.

Despite these worrying figures, the London Overground helped to push the average up, by ensuring, in the month of April this year that 96.3% of its trains ran on time. This comparatively impressive statistic was rivalled by another London train line – c2c, which runs from Fenchurch Street station into Essex.

Talking about the London Overground’s achievement, Andrew Munden, the Network Rail route director commented:

“The London Overground network is a perfect example of how investment in rail can boost services for passengers. We will continue working together to deliver a high performing and reliable railway in the capital, every day.”

The London Overground is a relatively new train service, which was launched four years ago following the demise of the old Silverlink network. This highly punctual and ‘model’ train line is owned by Transport for London, and is made up of five lines – the West London line, East London line, North London line, the Watford DC line and the Gospel to Barking line.