New Customer On-Time measure – measuring our customer’s experience

Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink (Intercity) are now publishing a customer centred performance indicator that measures customer travel experience on the rail network during peak times.

 The Customer On-Time measure represents the percentage of customers who arrive at their destination within five minutes of their planned arrival time.

This measure is in addition to the Train Punctuality measure which will be continue to be recorded and published. 

The Customer On-Time figure will measure the same train services as are used to measure Peak Punctuality. That is, customers travelling on peak services directly to the CBD in the morning peak (arriving at Central between 6 and 10am) and on trips from the CBD in the afternoon peak (departing Central between 3 and 7pm).

The tables below provides customer on-time data for the daily AM and PM peak for the day, month to date and previous six months. The first table is from Sydney Trains and the second table is from NSW TrainLink (Intercity), which are country services travelling within the CBD.

They records the percentage of customers not on-time and the average period of their delay measured to the scheduled arrival time. Train punctuality data is also reported in the table for reference.

Sydney Trains

NSW TrainLink

*Data for the new measure is drawn from a number of existing data sources including timetable, train location and Opal reporting systems.

How is customer on time measure derived?

The model compares a typical day of planned travel – based on recent travel demand and the published timetable – it models the likely customer travel experience based on the operations of the trains that day.

If the timetable operates to plan, customers will be allocated to their planned service, and any delay will be the difference between the service’s actual arrival time and its timetabled arrival time at the customers’ destination.

When operations don’t go to plan, customers are allocated to the most appropriate alternative service and the arrival time of that service is compared with the timetabled arrival time of the planned service.