Last updated at 14:41, Friday, 03 August 2012

Floods and torrential rain have been blamed for disappointing punctuality figures by the firm that operates Cumbria’s busiest rail link.

Virgin Trains say 86.5 per cent of its services were on time for the period June 24 to July 21.

The spell coincided with flash floods that caused chaos on the West Coast Mainline through Cumbria, with passengers caught on trains forced to stop because of a landslip between Oxenholme and Carlisle.

Nationally, 92.7 per cent of trains hit their punctuality target, up slightly from last year’s figure of 92.2 per cent for the same period.

Commuter trains must arrive within five minutes and long distance services within 10 minutes to count as being on time.

Trains cancelled due to external factors, such as the weather, vandalism or suicides still count against operators’ scores.

Steven Knight, of Virgin Trains, said: “We are disappointed but we did have the severe weather we experienced with torrential rain and landslips.”

He said the West Coast Main Line had been closed between Preston and Carlisle due to power line problems and that flooding on the tracks had caused cancellations.

First published at 14:10, Friday, 03 August 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk