Figures show sharp contrast in Largs and Inverclyde trains

According to statistics published by OnTimeTrains.co.uk, 56 per cent of services to Largs arrived on time over the last 12 weeks to today's date, compared to 79 per cent of trains to Wemyss Bay and 66 per cent to Gourock.

Wemyss Bay is set to see a half-hourly service introduced in June of this year - something campaigners in Largs have been seeking for many years, so far without success.

ScotRail is also planning to run two fast trains per hour on the Gourock-Glasgow route from June, while services to and from Largs have been slowed down since last year, with all Largs services now stopping at every station between the town and Paisley Gilmour Street.

The rail operator said last year that it planned to look at the feasibility of bringing a 30-minute service to the Largs route - something that's been missing since the line was electrified, and made partly single track, in the 1980s.

But that didn't stop Largs resident Michael McKinlay launching a petition in January to campaign for a half-hourly frequency.

The OnTimeTrains statistics rank all of the UK's 2,619 railway stations by passenger count and performance, with the latter calculated based on service punctuality and cancellation frequency.

Largs is ranked 1,121st on the performance list with a score of 84 per cent.

The station is the 1,015th busiest in the UK, according to the figures, with an average of 839 passengers a day.

According to the figures, 56 per cent of Largs trains were on time, while 19 per cent were up to two minutes late, 11 per cent were 3-4 minutes late and 7 per cent were 5-9 minutes late.

Two per cent of trains were 10 or more minutes late, while 4 per cent were cancelled.

Wemyss Bay, however, was more than 900 places higher than Largs on the list.

Ranked 211st, Wemyss Bay saw 79 per cent of trains on time, while 10 per cent were 1-2 minutes late and 3 per cent 3-4 minutes late.

One per cent were 5-9 minutes late and another one per cent 10 or more minutes late, while 5 per cent were cancelled.

Wemyss Bay is the 1,371st busiest station in the country, with 450 passengers a day on average.

Average performance rankings show that Wemyss Bay was as high as 30th in UK, while Largs was as high as 595th, on a given day. (Image: On Time Trains)

Away from the two terminal stations in the area, Fairlie is ranked 1,079th in terms of performance and 2,116th busiest, with just 81 passengers a day.

West Kilbride is 1,667th for performance and 1,575th for passenger numbers with an average of 304 passengers each day.

Again, there's a sharp contrast with services in Inverclyde, with Inverkip station the 213th best performing - though it's only 1,890th in terms of passenger numbers, with 159 passengers a day.

Ardrossan South Beach is 1,083rd for performance and 1,444th busiest, with 394 passengers a day.

Ardrossan Harbour is ranked 1,382nd for performance and 1,677th for passenger numbers.
 

Other local stations were ranked as follows.

Saltcoats: 1,177th for performance and 1,208th for passenger numbers (601 per day)

Stevenston: 1,721st for performance and 1,725th for passenger numbers (226 per day)

Kilwinning: 988th for performance and 645th for passenger numbers (1,787 per day).

At Kilwinning, however, only 42 per cent of services - including those on the Ayr-Glasgow route as well as the Largs and Ardrossan lines - were on time.