RAIL infrastructure firm Network Rail says train performances are the best they have been for four years.

The company, whose South West divisional headquarters are in Swindon, says delays for which it was responsible have fallen by more than a million minutes.

In the year to March 31, the total was 13.7m minutes, whereas the previous year's figure was 14.7m.

The organisation claims this is particularly impressive in light of the fact that the quantity of track renewals reached a peak not seen for decades during the period in question.

An unnamed spokesman for the company said: "Bringing maintenance in-house is really making a difference for passengers

"We are seeing significant improvements."

Network Rail is the not-for-profit successor organisation to Railtrack.