TRAIN punctuality has slumped to a 13-year low after a series of major issues plagued Britain’s railways in 2018.

One in seven trains (14.6 per cent) missed the industry’s Public Performance Measure (PPM) of punctuality in the 12 months to December 8, according to Office of Rail and Road figures.

Press Association analysis revealed this annual rolling average has not been worse since September, 2005.

PPM measures whether a train arrives at its final destination within five minutes of the scheduled time, or 10 minutes for a long-distance service.

Punctuality has been affected by a number of problems in 2018 including extreme weather, errors in the launch of new timetables, strikes and signalling failures.

Snow and ice crippled parts of the network when the Beast from the East hit Britain in February and March, while rails buckled due to a summer heatwave just three months later.