České dráhy Trains Run with Higher Punctuality than in the Past 7 Years, 9 out of 10 Services Run on Time

České dráhy services are running the most punctually in the last 7 years. In the first half of the year, the trains of the national carrier were running with 88.8% punctuality. If you took into account only the causes of delays on the part of České dráhy, the punctuality would be 98.9%. The reliability and punctuality of České dráhy trains is therefore comparable to the situation in other European countries.

„This year we have been managing to run much more punctually and reliably than in previous years, in spite of the fact that there are still a lot of major construction works and many other restrictions and closures on the railway infrastructure. Overall timetable performance was one to one-and-a-half percentage points higher than the best figures of the past seven years. We are even running more than four percentage points better than last year. Train punctuality, which only takes into account delays caused by České dráhy, is also the highest in the past seven years. This means that we are among the leading European countries in terms of train punctuality,“ says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of České dráhy.

In the first half of the year, České dráhy dispatched 1,217,296 trains, of which 1,093,002 trains were running on time. Trains with an average delay of up to 5 minutes are considered on time. All timetable data are measured (the times measured being departure times from departure stations, arrival and departure times at intermediate stations and arrivals at the final destination stations of the trains; for international trains, the times of crossing the state border of the Czech Republic measured as well). Several million time-data items are therefore processed in the statistics.

Of all the cases of delays, České dráhy is responsible for train delays in only 13% of cases. The railway infrastructure operator is responsible for 19.4% of delayed trains and 67.7% of delays are caused for other reasons. A more detailed look at the causes of delays shows that the most frequent cause of delays is a train sequence (27%), e.g., when trains cross on single-track lines. In the Czech Republic, there are more of these railway lines than abroad and they account for about three quarters of our railway network. The second most frequent cause of train delays is waiting for a connection service (20.6%) so that connections are maintained to the maximum extent possible and passengers reach their destination stations without complications, as soon as possible without having to wait for the following trains. The third most frequent cause of train delays is represented by closures and outages. They account for 14.1% of train delays. The share of delayed trains arriving from abroad is not negligible either. Within the framework of the total number of delayed trains, this represents 4.5% of all services, although the number of international train services is relatively small.