Why we're so resigned to a poor rail service

A report by Ombudsman Services found that long-term issues have resulted in “high levels of disillusionment”.

Public transport campaigners said it is “simply unacceptable” that some passengers are paying “thousands of pounds for poor service”.

The figures were published the week after it emerged that more than half the trains on many of Yorkshire’s busiest routes arrived late during the first part of the winter.

Ombudsman Services commissioned a survey of 2,477 people which suggested that complaints about rail services increased by almost a third, to two million last year.

The most common rail complaints were for punctuality issues, poor customer service and overcrowding.

Lianna Etkind Campaign, from the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “No other service industry would get away with treating its customers so appallingly.

“When trains are regularly late or overcrowded, it can genuinely blight people’s lives.

“Regulators need to ensure that when people complain about their train service, they aren’t just fobbed off with a copy and paste response but that real action is taken to improve the service.”

Chief ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith said: “Consumers feel that complaining is often a waste of their time, because they see no change in the behaviour of big business.

A bill is before parliament to establish a rail ombudsman, who would oversee a compensation scheme aimed at hitting train operators harder financially to act as an incentive to improve services.