By . Martin Robinson . PUBLISHED: . 03:26 EST, 30 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:59 EST, 30 August 2013 . Left waiting: Half of all services operated by Virgin Trains on the West Coast Mainline were late . One in three trains in Britain is late and on some routes more than half fail to arrive on time, 'real' official figures revealed today. Rail companies do not consider their services as delayed as long as they arrived no more than 10 minutes behind schedule. But Network Rail has produced new 'right-time' statistics, which look at delays of more than 59 seconds. The results have today been called 'shocking' and a 'national scandal'. It found 47.4 per cent of services operated by Virgin Trains on the West Coast Mainline were on time in the past year. The figures for this 12-month period also . showed that only 45.2 per of trains on the serpentine CrossCountry . service, from Aberdeen to Penzance, were on time. The best was Chiltern, with an 87.5 per cent punctuality record. Overall 67.6 per cent of all trains nationally were on time. This means that services have deteriorated as in 2011 the rate was 69.8 per cent. ‘Passengers tell us that punctual trains are what they want most from the railway – so they will be disappointed with the decline in overall performance,' Mike Hewitson, from the rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said. ‘Passenger satisfaction with punctuality has also gone down in our latest passenger survey. It is essential that this is reversed so that passengers can get back to depending on the railway.’ London and south east England train operators' punctuality reached 68.5 per cent but the figure for long-distance services was only 53.2 per cent. Network Rail publishes the right-time performance alongside the the public performance measure (PPM) figures under which the company's punctuality record is assessed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). Under PPM, a short-distance train is only deemed to be late if it arrives five minutes or more after the scheduled time, while a long-distance train has to arrive 10 minutes or more behind schedule to be considered late. Under PPM, 90.8% of trains were on time nationally for the 12 months ending August 18 2013. Virgin Trains had the poorest punctuality figure - 83.1 per cent . NR says that as far as the right-time figures are concerned 'the process for gathering data of this accuracy is currently not 100 per cent reliable and the industry is working on improving the quality of this information to make right-time data more reliable'. Nationally, around 60 per cent of delays to train services are attributed to NR, which has been repeatedly warned by the ORR about its punctuality performance. 'Shocking': Real time figures show that more than half of all trains run late on some rail routes . Virgin Trains has been at loggerheads with NR over West Coast delays, with Virgin upset that its request to run more services on the line has been turned down. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: 'These shocking figures show that under privatisation the British people are paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on some of the most unreliable services. 'It is a national scandal that profits and bonuses are being bled out of the rail system while services and capacity are collapsing into chaos.'
Network Rail has counted all trains that were more than 59 secs late .
Virgin's West Coast franchise only had 47% punctuality rate .
Average of 33% of trains on all Britain's routes were late or delayed .
Rail firms only count services as delayed when 10 mins behind schedule .
By . Martin Robinson . PUBLISHED: . 03:26 EST, 30 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:59 EST, 30 August 2013 . Left waiting: Half of all services operated by Virgin Trains on the West Coast Mainline were late . One in three trains in Britain is late and on some routes more than half fail to arrive on time, 'real' official figures revealed today. Rail companies do not consider their services as delayed as long as they arrived no more than 10 minutes behind schedule. But Network Rail has produced new 'right-time' statistics, which look at delays of more than 59 seconds. The results have today been called 'shocking' and a 'national scandal'. It found 47.4 per cent of services operated by Virgin Trains on the West Coast Mainline were on time in the past year. The figures for this 12-month period also . showed that only 45.2 per of trains on the serpentine CrossCountry . service, from Aberdeen to Penzance, were on time. The best was Chiltern, with an 87.5 per cent punctuality record. Overall 67.6 per cent of all trains nationally were on time. This means that services have deteriorated as in 2011 the rate was 69.8 per cent. ‘Passengers tell us that punctual trains are what they want most from the railway – so they will be disappointed with the decline in overall performance,' Mike Hewitson, from the rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said. ‘Passenger satisfaction with punctuality has also gone down in our latest passenger survey. It is essential that this is reversed so that passengers can get back to depending on the railway.’ London and south east England train operators' punctuality reached 68.5 per cent but the figure for long-distance services was only 53.2 per cent. Network Rail publishes the right-time performance alongside the the public performance measure (PPM) figures under which the company's punctuality record is assessed by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). Under PPM, a short-distance train is only deemed to be late if it arrives five minutes or more after the scheduled time, while a long-distance train has to arrive 10 minutes or more behind schedule to be considered late. Under PPM, 90.8% of trains were on time nationally for the 12 months ending August 18 2013. Virgin Trains had the poorest punctuality figure - 83.1 per cent . NR says that as far as the right-time figures are concerned 'the process for gathering data of this accuracy is currently not 100 per cent reliable and the industry is working on improving the quality of this information to make right-time data more reliable'. Nationally, around 60 per cent of delays to train services are attributed to NR, which has been repeatedly warned by the ORR about its punctuality performance. 'Shocking': Real time figures show that more than half of all trains run late on some rail routes . Virgin Trains has been at loggerheads with NR over West Coast delays, with Virgin upset that its request to run more services on the line has been turned down. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: 'These shocking figures show that under privatisation the British people are paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on some of the most unreliable services. 'It is a national scandal that profits and bonuses are being bled out of the rail system while services and capacity are collapsing into chaos.'
Mainline were late . One in three trains in their services as delayed as long as they arrived Network Rail has produced new 'right-time' statistics, which look at delays of more than 59 Trains on the West Coast Mainline were on time in period also . showed that only 45.2 per of trains record. Overall 67.6 per cent of all trains to arrive 10 minutes or more behind schedule to