A TRAIN company has been urged to “get its act together” after passenger criticism of the way it responds to delays.

Just 32 per cent of passengers surveyed in autumn last year by Passenger Focus rated Northern Rail’s response to delays as satisfactory or good – a ten per cent drop on the group’s findings from the previous spring.

Northern, which polled an overall 78 per cent satisfaction rating from passengers, said the period in question had been “particularly challenging operationally for us” and that had inevitably impacted on passengers views.

Its customer service director Natalie Loughborough said: “We will continue to focus on driving improvements in performance, especially information during disruption, as we know this is really important to our customers.”

Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham said: “If less than one in three people are satisfied with their response to delays [Northern] needs to get its act together and find out why.

“Infrequent trains, trains that are often late, these are all issues, and the trains themselves are antiquated. Many times I have travelled they are cold, draughty and uncomfortable.”

The MP added: “The North needs considerable investment in its rail network in order to improve it and we also need to see increases in capacity.

“Rail usage among passengers has gone up, yet in some cases the quality of the services they receive has gone down.”

Meanwhile, First TransPennine Express said it too had seen “some challenges” specifically in respect of punctuality last autumn, although this had improved since.

The operator saw an 11 per cent fall in the number of passengers who regarded its performance in this area as satisfactory or good (74 per cent), the second largest fall of any company included in the quarterly survey.

Spokesman Matthew Hay said: “Network Rail’s recovery from signal failures and blockages on the line has not been what we would expect it to be, but we have been working on a recovery plan with them.

“We’ve also improved our maintenance regime and this has led to better fleet performance.”

Another area highlighted by passengers was sufficient room to sit/stand. Sixty two per cent said this was satisfactory or good, while 27 per cent said their experience had left them dissatisfied or feeling it was poor.

The company, which had an overall 82 per cent satisfaction rating, said it was the second busiest train operator in the country and had recognised capacity was a problem by last year adding thousands of extra seats to its services.

Elsewhere in the survey, East Coast, which is due to return to the private sector despite protests from some MPs and other groups, polled an overall 90 per cent satisfaction rating and Cross Country 82 per cent.