The Rail Safety and Standars Board (RSSB) has awarded a 12-month research contract to City University of London and Risk Solutions, to investigate the causes of knock-on train delays.
The contract, which includes a partnership with Great Western Railway (GWR), will require the partners to assess the causes and consequences of knock-on delays and accordingly identify possible ways to tackle them and improve rail services for passengers.
The primary delay in service has remained stable over the recent years at nearly 300-350,000 minutes per year. But the delay due to the initial incident often causes reactionary delay, which has steadily grown over the recent years from 600,000 to 800,000 minutes annually.
“Many knock-on effects have little overall effect on the train service but some may cause large knock-on effects that impact other train services.”
The research will investigate why this delay which was proving difficult to control.