00:00Which EU country has the most punctual trains?
00:08A debate has erupted online after Spain's transport minister, Oscar Puente,
00:12claimed that his country has the second most punctual
00:15mid- and long-distance trains in Europe.
00:30It's true that non-EU member Switzerland consistently ranks
00:36as having some of the most reliable trains on the continent,
00:39according to various reports and travel companies
00:42that rank services based on their own criteria.
00:45The European Commission, however, also collects its own data
00:48on the punctuality of EU countries' train services,
00:51although it notes that different definitions of punctuality
00:54apply in different member states, making it hard to fully compare each country.
00:58Nevertheless, according to data published in July,
01:01the Netherlands had the most punctual long-distance
01:04and high-speed passenger train services in the EU,
01:07with 88% of its trains arriving on time in 2022.
01:11The European Commission classifies punctual as trains arriving
01:15with a five-minute delay at most.
01:17The Netherlands was followed by Belgium, also with 88%,
01:20but brought down slightly in the ranking due to its results in previous years,
01:24and Bulgaria, with 87%.
01:26Denmark came fourth, and yes, Spain came in fifth,
01:29so it does rank as having some of the most punctual
01:32long-distance train services in the EU.
01:35And it does outrank the German, Italian and French services,
01:38as Puente suggested.
01:39The EU average for high-speed and long-distance trains
01:42that arrived on time was 87%, according to the Commission.
01:45It's a different story for local and regional trains, though.
01:49Here, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Finland and Denmark
01:53make up the top five most punctual train services.
01:56Latvia, Belgium
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