Workers travelling from Kings Cross are more likely to face a late arrival as it has been named the worst UK station for morning commuter delays and cancellations, according to a new study.
Over a quarter (26%) of trains are delayed by more than five minutes – and 6% cancelled – at the station, which serves around 67,079 passengers every day.
Digital marketing and PR agency Tank analysed 660 routes and 50 stations using data from the last six months to uncover the best and worst journeys for morning commuters across the UK. Commuters in the capital can also predict how likely a train is to be delayed or cancelled using the Commuter Delays Calculator, created by Tank.
On the other hand, Barking tops the list as the most reliable station for commuters with just 1% of services cancelled and only 1.5% of arrivals delayed more than five minutes.
Nationally, nearly 15% of morning commuter trains are delayed by at least five minutes and 4% are cancelled.
Last year, claims for delays reached 7.6 million, and fares expected to rise again in March 2025 by 4.6%.
Worst London stations
|
Rank |
Station |
Cancelled (%) |
Arrivals over five minutes late (%) |
Average delay time (mins) |
Index score (out of 300)* |
|
1 |
Kings Cross |
6 |
26 |
4.12 |
33.94 |
|
2 |
Blackfriars |
7 |
18 |
3.52 |
74.22 |
|
3 |
St Pancras International |
6 |
19 |
3.30 |
83.52 |
|
4 |
Paddington |
5 |
19 |
3.21 |
94.26 |
|
5 |
Euston |
4 |
20% |
3.38 |
108.59 |
Delays get progressively worse at Kings Cross, starting at 3.53 minutes for 6am-6:59am arrival times, to almost five minutes by 9am-9:59am. The average delay time is also over four minutes – nearly double the national average of two minutes and 33 seconds.
Blackfriars was close second, with 7% of services cancelled, followed by St Pancras International with 6% cancelled.
Most reliable London stations
There’s light at the end of the tunnel for commuters at Barking, since it has the lowest average delay time of 0.21 minutes. Hot on its tracks is Fenchurch Street with only 4% of delays over five minutes.
|
Rank |
Station |
Cancelled (%) |
Arrivals over five minutes late (%) |
Average delay time (mins) |
Index score (out of 300)* |
|
1 |
Barking |
1 |
1.5 |
0.21 |
300 |
|
2 |
Fenchurch Street |
1 |
4 |
0.73 |
276.44 |
|
3 |
Stratford |
2 |
5 |
0.96 |
250.24 |
|
4 |
Liverpool Street |
3 |
6 |
0.94 |
238.73 |
|
5 |
Cannon Street |
2 |
10 |
1.69 |
211.54 |
Matthew Erskine, commuter and demand generation lead at Dradis, said:
“I commute from Peterborough station to London Kings Cross weekly for work. Although the journey is supposed to take around an hour, it’s usually a lot longer because of the constant delays and cancellations that I experience, both on the train and tube.
“With my workplace’s hybrid policy, I’m needed in the office two days per week, but I end up spending a lot more time at home because of the travel disruption. I have missed important meetings because of it and delays have a knock-on effect on the rest of my day.”
Methodology
*Once the data had been collected, an index score was given to each station for each data point, depending on the reliability of the journey. E.g. The stations with the largest average delay in minutes received a lower score out of 100; whereas a higher % of trains arriving within five minutes of scheduled time is desirable, so stations with the highest % ranked on top with a higher score. The cumulative percentages for each station and data point were totaled and ranked out of 300, with the highest index figure being most reliable, and vice versa.
The sample of 660 commuter journeys was chosen based on the most popular routes travelled by commuters to the UK’s 50 busiest stations based on annual passenger usage data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Delays data was based on the time period between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024 and was compiled using the Recent Train Times website. This data is sourced from National Rail using its Open Data Feeds. Only ‘regular’ journeys were included in the sample.