Commuters poll shows record complaints from rail passengers

Despite record spending of more than £6 billion a year on the national network, a record low of only two in five passengers believe they are getting value for money.

One in four passengers - 26 per cent - complain of crowded conditions with no seat or little room to stand.

Southeastern and South West Trains, both saw their ratings fall in the annual poll of passenger satisfaction.

Also down are First Great Western, First Capital Connect, Silverlink and Gatwick Express.

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The nationwide survey of 25,000 rail users was by independent travel watchdog Passenger Focus.

It comes after the Evening Standard highlighted concern about overcrowding in its Seat For Every Commuter campaign.

Passenger Focus concluded that overall, passenger satisfaction had fallen for the first time in three years - dropping two per cent, compared with a year ago, to 79 per cent satisfied.

Two London commuter companies, First Great Western, which runs local and long distance routes into Paddington and First Capital Connect, formerly-Thameslink, head the list of shame.

Satisfaction on FGW - where passengers staged a one-day fares "strike" in protest at timetable changes forcing the company to back down - plunged by six per cent to 72 per cent.

On FCC, which scrapped some cheap fares, the satisfaction level slumped by five per

Satisfaction on Southeastern, busiest of the London commuter companies, showed a three per cent drop to 74 per cent. On South West Trains they came down by two per cent to 81 per cent. Silverlink also showed a two per cent fall to 76 per cent.

Passengers were asked to rate their experience from 30 key criteria - the largest falls in satisfaction levels were poor handling by the train companies in dealing with delays, lack of lavatories and insufficient room to sit or even stand.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, said: "It is the larger operators which have brought the overall ratings down."

Brian Cooke, chairman of London TravelWatch, said: " Particularly disappointing is FGW's score, they declined in every category."

Mr Cooke added: "Once again FCC were the worst performers in London and the South-East. FirstGroup assure us they are working hard to improve but clearly more needs to be done."

George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "Concern about getting a seat has grown over the last year."

Andrew Haines, managing director of FirstGroup's rail division, said: "The first thing we offer is an unreserved apology. We take the Evening Standard's A Seat for Every Commuter campaign very seriously.

"We know that overcrowding is the biggest issue and our investment and our plans to increase capacity on both franchises will deliver annually an additional five million seats."