In October, the least reliable train route in the United Kingdom started at Liverpool Lime Street. Statistics show that 124 of the 221 East Midlands Railway trains from Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich were late enough for passengers to claim Delay Repay, or were cancelled or cut short.
The 15:51 from Lime Street was late enough for passengers to claim on 21 of the 23 days it ran, the second worst single train in the country. Avanti West Coast's trains between Euston and Lime Street were 20.5% late towards Liverpool and 20.2% towards London, about 1 in 5.
Data source and national context
The figures come from Railhop's October 2026 UK Train Delay Report. It covers 611,539 trains run by 28 train companies from 2 to 31 October, calculated from National Rail Enquiries' Darwin data and Network Rail's timetable.
Across Great Britain, about 1 in 13 trains (7.7%) reached its final stop late enough for a passenger travelling the whole way to claim Delay Repay, or was cancelled or cut short on the day. Avanti West Coast was highest at 30.0% and Heathrow Express lowest at 2.6%. Trains cancelled in the timetable the evening before (planned engineering work) aren't counted.
Operator response and improvement plan
Most train companies pay from 15 minutes late, and claims usually have to be made within 28 days. Even so, a 2025 DfT and Transport Focus survey found only 45% of passengers with an eligible delay made a claim.
Speaking about its route from Lime Street to Norwich, an East Midlands Railway spokesperson said: "The Liverpool–Norwich route is one of the more operationally complex services on the network. It crosses some of the most congested parts of the railway, including the Stockport–Manchester and Manchester–Liverpool corridors, as well as the East Coast Main Line, while connecting a number of major cities and towns including Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Peterborough and Norwich."
The spokesperson added: "The route is also affected by a number of speed restrictions, particularly across the Anglia region, alongside fleet and operational constraints, all of which can make maintaining consistent performance across the full length of the service challenging. We recognise the importance of improving performance on the route and would like to apologise to customers who have been affected by delays. We are currently developing a Liverpool–Norwich Improvement Plan, working with colleagues and partners across the industry to identify and deliver opportunities to improve reliability and punctuality."
Railhop is an independent UK service that checks journeys for Delay Repay and fills in the train company's own claim form. The passenger checks it and presses Submit, and the train company pays them directly.
