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INFORMED SOURCES January 2006

Train reliability – electrics excel but diesels disappoint

Fresh from handing out golden spanners to the top performers, Captain Deltic unveils his annual review of fleet reliability

This is the third Informed Sources Annual Review of traction and rolling stock fleet reliability, based on data collated by the National Fleet Reliability Improvement programme(NFRIP) under the auspices of the Association of Train Operating Companies.

As in previous years, the review is based on performance for Period 7 (18 September-15 October) of the year which started on April 1 2005 . Fleets are ranked on their moving annual average (MAA) miles per casualty (MPC) as at Period 7.

Each fleet's MPC for the four weeks of Period 7 is also shown. I have had my knuckles rapped by statisticians for incorrect use of a spreadsheet when trying to draw meaning out of spot versus MAA figures in past columns, but the comparison does show major improvements.

Definitions

A Casualty is counted where there is a fault on a train causing a delay of 5 or more minutes and the root cause is a technical or maintenance defect on the train.

Cancellations and part cancellations also count. From Period 2 2003/04 onwards, casualties have included all technical 'No Fault Founds'

Also included are technical faults to trains on empty stock moves; on occasions where delay is exacerbated by operational error; and under adverse weather conditions.

Excluded are train technical faults caused by vandalism, by proven infrastructure defects and by other third parties such as a suicide damaging a train.

While MPC is a useful tool for measuring reliability, there are casualties and casualties. Table 1 is an excerpt from a TRUST log on my local line: note that 3 min delay at Potters Bar.

Table 1

TRUST Train Enquiry at 20:48 11/11/05

542C06MK11 12:06 KINGS X to CAMBRIDGE 11/11/05 Multiple unit (planned)
	Booked		Actual		Applicable	Timetable Service
	ARR	DEP	ARR	DEP
KINGS X		12:06		12:06A	RT TIME	S LINE
BELLEISLE		12:07H		12:07A	RT TIME	S LINE
FINSBRYPK	12:10H	12:11H	12:10A	12:11A	RT TIME	S LINE
ALEXPALCE		12:14		12:14A	RT TIME	S LINE
POTTRSBAR	12:20H	12:21	12:21A	12:24A	3 LATE	S LINE
WELWYN GC	12:31	12:31H	12:32A	12:33A	2 LATE	S LINE

At Potters Bar, I was sitting in the second coach of the Class 365 drafting a Railtalk on my Psion when the door-close beeps sounded. However, the leading end door went ‘chuff-chuff' instead of ‘ker-chunk'.

After the driver had recycled the doors a couple of times, to no effect, a passenger went to see what was happening and came back shaking his head. When the doors recycled again and still chuffed, I switched to Capt Deltic mode and went to see for myself.

As the door closed, the leaves were sticking at the point where they switch from sliding to plugging. A carefully calibrated inward tug overcame the sticktion and the door closed, just as the driver came back for a look-see.

So that is why we were 3 min late off Potters Bar. Now, had I leapt to my feet as soon as the door recycling started, and given the door the Finsbury Park Depot treatment immediately, we would probably have been right time. Had there not been an English Electric trained engineer on board the train could have been an NFRIP casualty.

Severity

So the reliability tables should be read in conjunctions with Table 2, which summarises the effects of each operator's failures. NFRIP uses two parameters: miles per incident and impact minutes per 1000 miles. I have added impact minutes per incident, since, in theory, this is an indication of how quickly train crew can fault find and get the train moving.

Of course impact minutes per incident reflect external factors. If a Gatwick Express EMU sits down the scope for TOC on TOC impact minutes is massive. Equally, on c2c, with, effectively, a dedicated line, the scope is much less.

On this measure, Southern, South Eastern and SWT have almost identical figures, suggesting that drivers are getting to grips with the Train Management Systems (TMS) on their Desiros and Electrostars. Virgin West Coast's 26 impact minutes per incident is also noteworthy, with complex trains on a busy route.

That said, my engineering and operating chums seem most at home with impact minutes per thousand miles. The rule of thumb appears to be that for a good PPM you need to get below 10-12 minutes. On this basis, the figures for Period 7 are encouraging.

Table 2

Fleet incidents and impact minutes

	Incidents	Miles	Total Impact Minutes (This Period)	Total Impact Minutes (MAA)	Miles per Incident (This Period)	Miles per Incident (MAA)	Impact Minutes per 1000 miles (This Period)	Impact Minutes per 1000 miles (MAA)	Impact minutes per incident
Hull Trains	0	60,440	0	116	n/a	25,432	0	2	0
c2c	38	288,119	972	1,041	7,582	6,114	3	4	26
WAGN	123	532,534	3,316	2,569	4,330	4,876	6	5	27
Midland Mainline	68	480,882	2,025	2,508	7,072	5,487	4	5	30
Merseyrail	110	261,804	1,568	1,803	2,380	2,364	6	7	14
Gatwick Express	13	115,233	869	826	8,864	15,411	8	7	67
First Great Western Link	102	592,581	2,902	4,408	5,810	5,775	5	7	28
South West Trains	344	1,812,571	12,132	16,355	5,269	4,209	7	9	35
GNER	149	863,117	8,761	8,739	5,793	5,722	10	10	59
Thameslink	175	529,685	4,661	5,762	3,027	3,218	9	11	27
Silverlink	107	421,135	3,107	4,594	3,936	2,789	7	11	29
Chiltern	190	385,645	6,282	4,391	2,030	2,436	16	12	33
Transpennine Express	181	607,329	6,650	7,754	3,355	3,187	11	12	37
First Great Western	211	800,804	9,561	9,915	3,795	4,120	12	12	45
One	410	1,438,455	15,757	18,211	3,508	3,268	11	13	38
ScotRail	872	1,765,974	25,226	23,895	2,025	2,396	14	14	29
Virgin Cross Country	285	1,267,464	14,974	17,997	4,447	4,991	12	14	53
South Eastern Trains	413	1,335,820	14,612	18,956	3,234	2,961	11	14	35
Northern 1	1,038	2,018,526	32,057	33,574	1,945	1,987	16	17	31
Southern	455	1,261,182	16,491	21,892	2,772	2,423	13	18	36
Wessex	284	523,689	9,419	9,571	1,844	1,812	18	18	33
Central Trains	557	1,369,664	26,561	27,410	2,459	2,337	19	21	48
Arriva Trains Wales	507	948,475	20,099	19,706	1,871	1,947	21	21	40
Virgin West Coast	523	1,023,968	13,789	21,377	1,958	1,580	13	22	26
Total	7,155	20,705,096	251,791	283,369	2,894				35

Diesels

Now for the fleet reliability details. As usual, improving fleets are coded green, deterioration is coded red, except for a drop of less than 5% on last year which is yellow. The ‘red rating' is the percentage of the category which has deteriorated year on year.

Tradition dictates that the review starts with the Pacers, where there is good news. If the rate of improvement is sustained, next year's survey should see either Wessex or Northern or, even both, winning the Champagne Challenge for the first Pacer fleet to achieve an MAA of 5000 MPC.

Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
Wessex	Class 143	54,567	7,795	4,518	4,363	1	4
Northern	Class 144	162,683	5,610	4,723	3,705	3	27
Northern	Class 142	591,801	3,565	3,845	4108	2	-6
Arriva Trains Wales	Class 143	88,185	1,917	2,762	3,454	5	-20
Arriva Trains Wales	Class 142	87,945	2,094	2,689	3,594	4	-25

On the debit side Northern's Class 142s and both the Arriva Trains Wales fleets seem to have lost the plot and are now below their 2003 MPC figures.

So the aspiration still has to be an MAA of 5000MPC and you still have to ask why such simple bits of kit, on which a lot of money has been spent getting rid of the worst problems, are still so unreliable.

Red Rating 60%

Aspiration 5000MPC

Disappointing DMUs

As with the Pacers, BR era diesel multiple units should have been sorted by now. And there have been some substantial improvements in the upper half of the table. SWT's 159s won the Golden Spanner and, despite a slight fall from last year, were nearly twice as reliable as the runner up.

Obviously, duty cycle counts, and the Class 159 has an easier life than, say, a ScotRail Class 156. But the Class 159s really advantage is in having a modern purpose built depot at Salisbury – free from the pressures on skills in the big cities.

But while the best are still improving, at the bottom of the table there are some worryingly low reliability figures. Even worse, note that most of the fleets below 5000MPC have got less reliable during the past year.

It looks as though the Class 150s and 153/155 units are showing their age – or perhaps heavy mid life overhauls are overdue. Scope for some research in future columns..

Red rating 43%

Minimum MPC 6000

Expected MPC 10,000

Aspiration MPC 15,000

BR DMUs

	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC p7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
1	South West Trains	Class 159	344,535	16,406	17,130	17,861	1	-4
2	ScotRail	Class 156	330,589	10,664	9,172	8,881	2	3
3	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 153	143,176	7,954	7,525	6,378	6	18
4	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 158w	367,423	10,206	7,248	6,440	5	13
5	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 158cam	99,288	9,026	6,948	4,668	18	49
6	Central Trains	Class 158	125,793	5,241	6,748	5,886	7	15
7	Northern(1)	Class 156	454,329	9,087	6,607	7,102	4	-7
8	Central Trains	Class 153	126,265	6,646	6,376	5,028	16	27
9	Silverlink	Class 150	35,769	5,962	6,364	8,324	3	-24
10	Wessex	Class 153	110,317	5,806	6,029	4,116	23	46
11	Transpennine Express	Class 158	614,392	6,903	5,925	5,668	12	5
12	Central Trains	Class 156	110,767	12,307	5,673	5,799	8	-2
13	Wessex	Class 150	233,132	5,686	5,271	5,754	10	-8
14	Wessex	Class 158	219,715	4,069	4,963	5,365	14	-7
15	One Anglia	Class 153	56,842	6,316	4,737	4,641	20	2
16	Northern	Class 150	319,761	2,934	4,422	5,378	13	-18
17	Northern(2)	Class 158	220,408	2,826	4,338	5,758	9	-25
18	Central Trains	Class 150	256,085	3,414	4,175	3,775	24	11
19	ScotRail	Class 158	287,741	4,717	4,029	5,263	15	-23
20	Arriva Trains Wales	Class 150	139,093	4,347	3,922	4,513	21	-13
21	Northern	Class 153	128,576	3,384	3,642	4,767	17	-24
22	One Anglia	Class 156	89,506	2,887	3,169
23	Northern	Class 155	58,161	5,287	3,096	3,361	25	-8

	1 Composite figure for previous FNW and ATN fleets
	2 FNW Class 158 only. ATN fleet statistics not available for last year's survey

BR EMUs shine

In contract to the Sprinters, the largely-York-built BR era electric multiple units appear to go from strength to strength. Silverlink's class 321 fleet improved by 39% on last year to take top spot with an MAA of just over 40,000MPC.

But note that SWTs Class 455s pushed the One Great Eastern Class 321s into third place by a mere 230 MPC - it must be down to the Class 455's EE507 traction motors. Mind you, one SWT Informed Source grumbled that the 455s should have been over 40,000MPC too, given the money that has been spent on reliability improvements.

Sadly Captain Deltic's favourite English Electric powered EMU, the Class 442, continued to decline, but still dropped only one place to fifth. But overall the percentage change column shows the results of some hard work by maintenance and overhaul staff, which suggests that these workhorses remain the heart of the railway.

There is another lesson to be learned. Everyone blathers on about new trains working out of the box. What these neophiles overlook is that a long production run produces the best performance; for example, the Class 321 was the culmination of a long build programme.

Given this year's performance the expected MPC has been raised to 15,000

Red rating 30%

Minimum MPC 15,000

Expected MPC 20,000

Aspiration MPC 40,000

	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
1	Silverlink	Class 321	339,955	33,996	40,687	29,368	1	39
2	South West Trains	Class 455	528,684	19,581	21,854	19,917	3	10
3	One Great Eastern	Class 321	529,396	23,017	21,620	20,233	2	7
4	One W.Anglia	Class 317/7	131,489	13,149	19,386	18,169	5	7
5	South West Trains	Class 442	292,772	20,912	15,398	18,899	4	-19
6	Thameslink	Class 319/3	253,359	19,489	14,786	17,747	6	-17
7	WAGN	Class 317/1	110,106	18,351	14,607	10,337	11	41
8	Southern	Class 319/2	36,510	18,255	14,255	8,648	15	65
9	ScotRail	Class 320	146,582	14,658	14,215	12,673	8	12
10	Thameslink	Class 319/4	436,312	10,908	14,123	16,429	7	-14
11	Southern	Class 456	132,911	12,083	13,095	10,714	9	22
12	One W.Anglia	Class 317/1 & 317/6	352,806	16,037	10,662	9,512	12	12
13	WAGN	Class 313	242,782	9,711	10,002	8,826	13	13
14	Southern	Class 319/0	113,733	5,687	9,876	10,586	10	-7
15	South West Trains	Class 455R	101,057	11,229	9,143
16	Silverlink	Class 508	15,969	15,969	8,367	4,719	23	77
17	One Great Eastern	Class 315	252,869	10,115	8,295	7,706	17	8
18	ScotRail	Class 322	22,344	7,448	7,448	4,687	24	59
19	Southern	Class 455/8	281,375	8,793	7,161	8,428	16	-15
20	ScotRail	Class 318	162,689	7,747	6,619	8,740	14	-24
21	South Eastern Trains	Class 508	63,870	6,387	6,525	6,114	21	7
22	Northern	Class 321	26,025	3,253	6,520	7,033	18	-7
23	Silverlink	Class 313	123,929	10,327	6,427	6,370	19	1
24	One W.Anglia	Class 315	111,793	6,987	5,512	5,201	22	6
25	Merseyrail	Class 508	163,207	8,590	5,050	4,077	25	24
26	Merseyrail	Class 507	182,792	6,093	4,913	6,131	20	-20
27	ScotRail	Class 314	84,476	5,280	3,558	3,716	26	-4

New DMUs improving

Hull Trains' Class 222 fleet enjoys a near ideal life. Little door action, lots of constant speed cruising up and down the East Coast Main Line and plenty of tender loving car in a small fleet. No wonder they won the Golden Spanner in this category with three times the reliability of the runner up.

In fact, the cosseted Class 222s tended to overshadow the impressive reliability first Great Western Link is getting from its Class 166s and 165s in the rough and tumble of diesel powered commuter services. But note that the Class 165s of FGW Link and Chiltern, the oldest units in this category, got slightly less reliable over the year.

From the table it looks as though the Class 170s have settled down around the 8,000MPC mark over a range of duties. This is on the low side for modern kit and calls for a Class 170 owners and operators group to be formed to get that MAA moving upwards.

Midland Main Line's engineers have had a good year with their IC125s as we shall see. And their Class 222 fleet missed out on the Golden Spanner for the most improved fleet only on the ruling that the year on year comparison had to be made on complete fleets.

Virgin Cross Country enjoyed mixed fortunes, the Class 220 Voyagers performing well, the more complex tilting Class 221 Super Voyagers losing ground slightly. But as you can read elsewhere in this column, everything was going well until June.

Overall, a good result and the minimum and expected MPC have been raised on the assumption that the reliability growth this year can be sustained.

Red rating 29%

Minimum MPC 10,000

Expected 15,000

Aspiration 20,000

	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
1	Hull	Class 222	65,787	65,787	38,191
2	First Great Western Link	Class 166	241,334	13,407	12,964	11,305	3	15
3	Midland Mainline	Class 222	289,028	10,705	11,710	2,910	18	302
4	First Great Western Link	Class 165/1	309,919	17,218	10,753	11,997	2	-10
5	One Anglia	Class 170	176,153	16,014	10,742	9,264	5	16
6	Virgin Cross Country	Class 220	623,911	9,175	9,548	8,887	6	7
7	ScotRail	Class 170	666,283	10,747	8,647	5,980	12	45
8	South West Trains	Class 170	90,730	18,146	8,502	7,365	9	15
9	Southern	Class 170	88,151	12,593	8,337	4,653	16	79
10	Chiltern	Class 168/2	59,627	3,507	8,094	9,345	4	-13
11	Chiltern	Class 168/1	90,226	10,025	8,054	6,166	11	31
12	Virgin Cross Country	Class 221	819,160	7,062	7,741	8,182	7	-5
13	First Great Western	Class 180	195,482	7,240	7,398	5,328	14	39
14	Chiltern	Class 165/0	311,188	5,101	6,383	6,697	10	-5
15	Arriva Trains Wales (1)	Class 175	317,600	4,537	5,186	2,375		118
16	Central Trains	Class 170	589,448	5,038	5,101	5,614	13	-9
17	Chiltern	Class 168/0	51,423	10,285	4,295	3,282	17	31

Includes Trans Pennine Express sub fleet

New EMUs coming good

Where to start with this Table and its mass of green? Well, how about the winner of the Golden Spanner for the most improved fleet in 2005 – One Great Eastern's Class 360s?

This fleet has gone from 17th to 7 th in the rankings in a year and is the best of the Siemens' units. But, given that trains with an alternating current power supply have an easier life electrically than those on the arcing and sparking 750V direct current third rail south of the Thames , the performance is not that impressive in absolute terms.

Note that the Class 360s are well behind ‘my' WAGN Class 365s, for example and on a par with the dual voltage Thameslink Class 319s. They should be better than that by now.

In fact, the Class 365's 62% improvement year on year is even better than it seems. Hornsey Depot has done some sterling work in bringing the ex-South Eastern Trains units up to WAGN standards of reliability. Managing Director Andrew Chivers reckons it took six months, which was faster than I expected.

Of course, like the Class 321, the Class 365 came after three batches of Networkers and included the best of both the Brel and GEC Alsthom designs. From the Table it looks as though the same repeat order effect is starting benefiting operators of Bombardier's Electrostars.

For SWT's two Desiro fleets it is taking time for initial poor reliability to be purged from the moving annual averages. I suspect that the Period 7 figures of 17,000 MPC is probably an accurate reflection of current performance by the Class 450s and 444s.

That said, Siemens have confirmed my long-held belief that a test track does nothing for reliability and that no new train works out of the box. Remember that the SWT Desiros have a contractual target of 50,000MPC and that the Class 444's 11,496 MPC compares with 15,398MPC for the Class 442 on similar duties. Add in the Northern Class 333s down in the mid 8000MPC and Siemens have a lot of work to do to.

Steve White, Siemens Transportation Systems Service Director tells me that the award of the golden Spanner for most improved fleet has reinforced the company's UK Rolling Stock Maintenance team's endeavours to continue to improve performance. One reason why NFRIP gets sniffy about the Golden Spanners is that, rather like primary school sports days, everyone deserves prizes.

Steve is planning to poach my idea and launch Der Goldener Laptop for the most improved Siemens fleet in the UK . He is looking to create a healthy dose of internal competition.

Last year's review called for a ‘massive improvement' in this category. With the second lowest red rating and two Golden Spanners winners the new fleets are delivering.

So the minimum MPC for post privatisation EMUs is now 15,000, while the expected and aspirational figures remain at 20,000MPC and 50,000MPC respectively. For the DC Networkers and the Class 323s the minimum remains at 10,000MPC and the expected 15,000MPC.

Red rating 9%

Minimum MPC: pre-privatisation 10,000 post privatisation 15,000

Expected MPC: pre-privatisation 15,000 post privatisation 20,000

Aspiration 50,0000 (post privatisation only)

	Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
1	c2c	Class 357	482,499	48,250	43,183	31,082	1	39
2	WAGN	Class 365	511,354	30,080	22,567	13,944	3	62
3	Gatwick Express	Class 460	111,971	12,441	19,582	15,195	2	29
4	Southern	Class 377/3	243,893	30,487	17,733
5	South Eastern Trains	Class 375/3,6&7	553,036	26,335	17,069	9,228	5	85
6	South Eastern Trains(1)	Class 375/8&9	550,706	34,419	14,441	6,348	12	127
7	One Great Eastern	Class 360	213,665	16,436	14,212	4,912	17	189
8	South West Trains	Class 458	114,382	11,438	13,580	5,660	14	140
9	Southern	Class 377/4	1,226,508	21,902	13,386	8,413	6	59
10	South West Trains	Class 444	485,887	17,353	11,496	4,467	18	157
11	South West Trains	Class 450	921,337	17,718	10,975	6,502	10	69
12	South Eastern Trains	Class 466	194,949	8,476	9,870	8,318	7	19
13	Silverlink	Class 350	93,676	13,382	9,168
14	South Eastern Trains	Class 465/1	271,640	9,701	8,944	6,395	11	40
15	Northern	Class 333	139,190	8,699	8,568	6,635	8	29
16	South Eastern Trains	Class 376	137,257	12,478	8,253	1,239	19	566
17	South Eastern Trains	Class 465/2	86,887	10,861	7,339	5,620	15	31
18	ScotRail	Class 334	340,342	7,735	7,292	9,863	4	-26
19	South Eastern Trains	Class 465/0	267,906	9,922	6,904	5,833	13	18
20	Central Trains	Class 323	184,158	5,262	6,287	5,377	16	17
21	Northern	Class 323	116,624	4,859	5,478	6,536	9	-16
22	South Eastern Trains	Class 465/9(2) refurbished 465/2	193,028	5,849	4,963
23	First Great Western Link	Class 360	22,110	11,055	4,865

1) 2004 composite figure
2) Refurbished units listed separately

Inter-City Re-engineering pays off

Even before there was a golden Spanner at stake, the rivalry in the Inter-City category was palpable. And the contest is fiercest among the three IC125 operators where Tender Loving Care has a tremendous impact.

When Operation Rio brought Midland Main Line a bedraggled, run-down, batch of ex-Virgin IC125s, the TOC's engineers took the resulting dive in reliability personally. And just as the GNER engineers love and cherish their 225s, the MML IC125 team really know their kit.

Not only have they achieved an 84% year on year improvement, but look at that spot figure for P7. Purely in the interest of stirring things up, I wonder whether the fact that they have most of the power cars re-engined with VP185s has helped?

At the top of the table a lot of hard work and good engineering by GNER is paying dividends. Re-engineering of the Class 91s has resulted in a current MAA of 59,0000MPC. By the end of November GNER had not needed to short-form a set because of auxiliary inverter problems on a Mk 4 coach for 14 weeks. Doors, however, still remain a problem area.

Pendolino update

At the bottom of the table Pendolino has increased by 72%, albeit from a very low base and the MAA still reflects the steepest part of the bathtub curve. But the big difference today is that when something goes wrong the systems rarely ‘crash and burn' and the impact minutes are coming down.

Doors, as ever, are the top cause of failures. Manufacturers IFE have a modification programme, being implemented on two trains a week. With a third of the fleet fixed this is starting to show results.

Predictably the Train Management System is No 2 in the top ten sources of faults. I didn't know that if the Public Address plays up, the crew, at present, have to trip and reset the whole train – the equivalent of ctrl alt del to reset a computer.

This was a daft idea, given that it takes an age for a modern train to reset. A new Version of the TMS software is being trialled which allows the crew to reset the PA locally without shutting down the rest of the train.

Is there any good news? Well tilt failures are down to around one train a day out of 45. Meanwhile with a million fleet miles per period the first trains will be coming up to their first 1 million mile bogie changes in the new year.

So all the fleets are getting better, except One Anglia, where the very slight drop may be down to the traction and rolling stock upgrade. Perish the thought that the arrival of everyone's favourite Class 90 could have made things worse.

To keep up the friendly rivalry among the IC125 operators I have upped last years aspiration to 15,000 MPC MAA. This becomes the second Champagne Challenge to be decided at Period 7 2006

Red rating nil

Minimum MPC electric traction 10,000

Expected MPC electric traction 15,000

Minimum MPC IC125 7,500

Expected MPC IC125 10,000

Aspiration MPC IC125 15,000

Inter-City

Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004	2004 ranking	% change MAA
GNER	IC225	603,655	22,358	13,397	11,372	1	18
GNER	Class 373	61,653	10,276	8,721	8,041	2	8
Midland Mainline	HST Set	256,449	13,497	7,934	4,313	6	84
GNER	HST Set	213,561	8,214	7,532	5,795	4	30
First Great Western	HST Set	744,492	7,090	7,193	6,280	3	15
One Anglia	Electric-loco Trainset	203,660	3,771	4,171	4,264	7	-2
Virgin West Coast	Class 390	1,004,272	6,786	3,772	2,189	8	72

Best of breed

Operator	Class	Unit Miles	MPC P7 2005/06	MAA MPC P7 2005	MAA MPC P7 2004
c2c	Class 357	482,499	48,250	43,183	31,082
Silverlink	Class 321	339,955	33,996	40,687	29,368
Hull	Class 222	65,787	65,787	38,191
South West Trains	Class 159	344,535	16,406	17,130	17,861
GNER	IC225	603,655	22,358	13,397	11,372
Wessex	Class 143	54,567	7,795	4,518	4,363

Top performers.

Top franchise owner is National Express whose engineers can not only make BR era and three-phase drive EMUs perform, but down in Wessex are getting seriously close to winning the Pacer Champagne challenge. Bombardier and its predecessors is top manufacturers having built all the Golden Spanner winning EMUs and DMUs and also assembled the IC225's Class 91s

Among the Rolling Stock Companies, HSBC have three top performers (Classes 321, 222 and IC225) Porterbrook have two (Classes 159 and 143) and also share the Class 357 fleet with Angel. Angel also own the most improved Class 360 fleet.

Continues.........