MORE trains are arriving on time in York and that's official.

New performance statistics have shown that punctuality on GNER and First TransPennine Express trains has leaped forward in the last year.

The Office of Rail Regulation's National Rail Trends survey, which covers the year from April, 2005, to March, 2006, has revealed that York-based GNER managed to ensure that 88.4 per cent of its trains arrived on time in the first three months of 2006 a 9.2 per cent increase on the same period 12 months ago.

For TransPennine Express, 87.3 per cent of services arrived within five minutes of their scheduled times compared with 78.5 per cent for the same quarter in 2005 an increase of 8.8 per cent.

The survey also showed that 90 per cent of GNER's passengers were satisfied with their overall journey experience.

This was the second- highest rating in the UK, was GNER's best score to date, and was bettered only by the Gatwick Express.

Jonathan Metcalfe, GNER's chief operating officer, said: "These figures show real, sustained progress towards our on-time target of 90 per cent punctuality by January 2010, a key element in our franchise agreed with Government last year.

"The opening last month of a new joint control centre with Network Rail at York, plus the £25 million re-engining of our diesel train fleet, will help us to build on these encouraging results, as we seek to create an ever more reliable railway for our passengers."

Vernon Barker, managing director of First TransPennine Express, said: "These figures highlight the improvements being experienced by our passengers.

"The efforts we have made to improve the punctuality of our services over recent months are clearly showing through and we aim to improve further on this level of performance."

The company carries more than 15 million passengers a day on 275 daily services across the north of England, and is introducing a fleet of 51 new trains to its network this year.