THE Office of Rail Regulation has called on Network Rail to work more efficiently to reduce the disruption caused by engineering work to all rail users by more than a third in the next five years.

In its latest National Rail Review, the ORR says passenger train punctuality has exceeded 90 per cent — its best level for more than 10 years.

But Bill Emery, ORR chief executive, added: “However, the regular closure of parts of the network for engineering work causes substantial disruption and inconvenience to many passengers and freight customers, as well as deterring others from using the network altogether.

“For rail to make its full contribution to our economy it is important that this disruption is reduced significantly. We have been taking steps to ensure this happens.

“Over the next five years Network Rail 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.”

Mr Emery said it should be possible both to achieve increased efficiency and to reduce disruption to train services by adopting best practice and exploiting technological advances.

“We expect the railway to be kept open for business for as much time as is possible, and we propose to set Network Rail a target to reduce disruption to passengers by 17 per cent within three years and 37 per cent within five years,” he announced.

ORR’s Network Rail monitor, also just published, as well as reflecting the record punctuality figures also shows that the risk of a train accident on the railway is lower than ever.

There has also been a significant reduction in the number of asset failures, and performance on the Western route has shown a marked improvement — but Network Rail is missing performance targets on the East Coast route.

Bill Emery said: “We are monitoring the situation on the East Coast main line, as performance on that route has suffered recently. A new joint performance improvement plan is due to be agreed between Network Rail and National Express East Coast in September. We expect this plan to address the current shortcomings.