Passengers happy with rail service

Customers were surveyed by a rail industry watchdog in autumn 2012, and 81 per cent said they were satisfied or very satisfied, compared to 75 per cent in autumn 2009.

However, 39 per cent of people said there was not enough room to sit or stand, and how well FCC deals with delays remains low at 33 per cent.

First Capital Connect managing director Neal Lawson said: “We are pleased to have improvements in autumn passenger satisfaction for the third year running. In particular, investment is paying off in satisfaction with punctuality and journey times, the attitudes and helpfulness of our staff, the security of our services and the overall station environment.

“However, we recognise we have more to do, particularly in the area of dealing with delays. Only yesterday we launched a new free bespoke text and email service telling customers about rail disruption. We have retained our successful customer support centre opened for the Olympics and our Twitter service now operates around the clock offering one-to-one journey advice.”

A capacity-boosting project, the Thameslink Programme, is in its final phase and will double peak capacity time in central London from 2018