A TRAIN service that operates in the two counties is the most improved in the country, with more than 90 per cent of trains now running on time.

The vast majority of First Great Western trains now arrive at the platform on time according to regulator Network Rail.

First runs the Cotswold Line, the main rail route for passengers from Malvern and Ledbury travelling to London, Oxford or Hereford.

In 2007/8 only 83.1 per cent of the operator’s trains were on time but that figure rose to 90.5 per cent in 2008/9. That figure places it mid-table among the country’s train operators, just below the average of 90.6 per cent.

Derek Potter, chairman of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group, welcomed the improvements. He feels the service will improve further once sections of the Cotswold Line have two tracks instead of one. This work will cost between £60-70m and is due to finish by spring 2011.

“The Cotswold Line is still on a knife-edge. You can’t know a train is going to be on time because of the sections of single track,” he said. “It only needs something to go wrong on the line and it stays wrong for most of the day.

“But the figures show that the service for passengers is as good as it has ever been with the number of trains we have.”