Rail satisfaction falls amid poor punctuality and lack of seats

Passenger satisfaction with train journeys in Britain is "significantly down" amid poor punctuality, a lack of seats and the poor condition of stations, a study has found.

Some 81% of passengers are satisfied with their journey, down three percentage points from spring 2017.

Services were described as "poor" by 8% of respondents.

The research was conducted by passenger watchdog Transport Focus for its spring 2018 report.

Satisfaction scores fell five percentage points year-on-year to 72% for punctuality and reliability.

Several other categories saw the proportion of satisfied customers drop by three percentage points, including the availability of seating (51% satisfied), upkeep of station buildings and platforms (72% satisfied) and how requests to station staff were handled (85% satisfied).

More than 25,000 passengers were surveyed between January 15 and March 28, coinciding with major disruption caused by stormy and cold weather such as the Beast from the East.