Even before the chaos, Northern had '˜lost face with passengers'

The latest National Rail Passenger Survey by the watchdog Transport Focus found the company’s rating across 38 categories to be “significantly unchanged” or worse than last spring, with punctuality seven per cent lower.

Northern has been heavily criticised for its performance since new national timetables were introduced on May 20. Little more than half its services were on time on some days and the company was forced to issue an emergency schedule which withdrew 165 of its daily journeys.

Yesterday, its network was decimated again as members of the RMT union staged a 24-hour walkout over the role of guards – an action it will repeat on Thursday and Saturday.

But the Transport Focus report, based on a survey which took place between January and March, reveals that the company’s record was already in question.

Well under half of the 1,875 passengers questioned said they were satisfied with the way the company handled delays, and more than a quarter thought its services poor value for money.

Northern scored an overall satisfaction rating of 80 – three per cent down on last spring and the sixth lowest in the country.

The firm is run by Arriva Rail North, which took over the franchise for local services two years ago with the promise of significant improvements.

Govia Thameslink, the other company most affected by the timetable chaos, had recorded the country’s biggest increase in satisfaction earlier in the year, 11 per cent higher than last spring.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, said Thameslink – whose chief executive resigned in the wake of the debacle – had now “shot itself in the foot”.

Nationally, passenger satisfaction was “significantly down”, with punctuality, too few seats and poor stations the biggest complaints, Transport Focus said.

Some 81 per cent of passengers were satisfied with their journey, three per cent fewer than last spring. Services were described as “poor” by eight per cent of respondents.

Mr Smith said that despite the bad weather during the survey period, general performance was “still under stress”.

He added: “A reliable railway remains the key driver of passenger satisfaction.”

Jac Starr, managing director of customer experience at the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the rail industry, said: “These results show how important it is to deliver on our long-term plan to run more trains, more reliably.”