A high-performing railway depends on trains and infrastructure working reliably, day after day. Improving punctuality, reducing cancellations and managing capacity effectively are essential to delivering better outcomes for passengers and freight customers.
For the rail supply chain, performance and reliability are influenced by decisions throughout the asset lifecycle, from design and manufacture to monitoring, maintenance and renewal. Rail Forum’s Performance & Reliability pillar will help members understand industry priorities, share good practice and contribute solutions that improve railway performance.
Support from Rail Forum...
Across Performance & Reliability, Rail Forum will:
- Connect members with operators, infrastructure organisations, rolling stock owners and industry specialists to share knowledge and practical solutions.
- Inform members about changing performance, maintenance and asset management priorities.
- Create opportunities to collaborate through events, workshops, roundtables and industry briefings.
- Champion supply-chain capability, showcasing technologies and expertise that improve reliability, asset performance and maintenance.
- Support whole-system thinking, bringing different parts of the railway together to address shared performance challenges.
A Reliable & High-Performing Railway
Passengers and freight customers need a railway they can rely on. Improving punctuality and reliability means tackling the causes of delay across rolling stock, infrastructure and operations, while making the best use of available network capacity.
The Office of Rail and Road publishes official statistics covering punctuality, reliability and the causes of delay across Britain’s mainline railway.
Recent performance improvement work has also shown the importance of cross-industry collaboration, clear accountability and data-led action to address the root causes of delay.
Rail Forum will bring members together with operators, infrastructure organisations and other customers to share expertise and explore practical ways to improve rail performance.
Predict & Prevent
Preventing failures before they disrupt services is increasingly important to railway performance. Condition monitoring, asset data and predictive maintenance can help identify emerging issues earlier, allowing maintenance to be planned more effectively and reducing avoidable failures.
This becomes particularly important as the industry manages an ageing asset base alongside constrained renewal budgets. The Office of Rail and Road’s Annual Assessment of Network Rail 2025 to 2026 highlights the need to manage declining asset condition and its potential impact on future safety and performance.
Rail Forum already supports this agenda through its fleet performance-focused events. Activity has brought together infrastructure leaders, operators, rolling stock companies and suppliers together to discuss vehicle maintenance and obsolescence, reliable operations, and lifecycle asset management.
Whole-System Performance & Efficiency
Rail performance depends on more than any single asset. Trains, track, signalling, power, depots and maintenance are closely connected, so decisions in one area can affect performance and cost elsewhere.
The GBR Rolling Stock & Infrastructure Strategy sets out a more integrated approach to planning trains and the infrastructure that supports them, including asset management, depots and maintenance.
For the supply chain, greater integration creates opportunities to improve reliability while reducing unnecessary cost and complexity. Rail Forum will connect members across different parts of the railway, supporting collaboration and encouraging a whole-system approach to performance.
