VIRGIN East Coast says a multi-million pound investment in refurbishing its fleet of trains is paying off after passenger satisfaction ratings hit 91 per cent.

The company said it had recorded its highest overall satisfaction rating in Transport Focus’s autumn survey of passengers for three years.

Carried out twice a year, the latest survey quizzed more than 29,000 passengers between September 1 and November 20 last year.

The percentage of passengers on Virgin East Coast who said they were satisfied with their experience or described it as good was up two per cent from last year’s autumn survey and increased three per cent from a survey last Spring.

The year-on-year increase bucked the trend nationally with overall passenger satisfaction with Britain’s railways falling from 83 per cent to 81 per cent over the last 12 months.

Transport Focus said it had been a turbulent period affected by industrial action, reduced service levels and poor performance in some parts of the country.

Its chief executive Anthony Smith said Scottish passengers and those travelling during peak periods in London and the South East were bearing the brunt of poor performance.

In contrast, Virgin said its services scored highly for journey times, frequency and punctuality and there had also been a marked improvement in stations and on-board facilities when it came to passenger satisfaction.

David Horne, managing director of Virgin Trains on the East Coast, which is launching its new Azuma fleet in 2018, said: “We are delighted to see Virgin Trains leading the results for long-distance franchised operators.”

“The £50m investment in our services and the overall customer experience is bearing fruit.”

TransPennine Express (TPE) scored a rounded-up overall passenger satisfaction rating of 84 per cent – which represented no real change year-on-year – but there was an eight per cent rise in punctuality/reliability to 81 per cent in terms of those who were satisfied/viewed it as good.

Kathryn O’Brien, customer experience director for TransPennine Express, said: “While the survey shows we are heading in the right direction, there is still more work to be done.”

Cross Country, Grand Central and Northern, which are all operated/owned by Arriva, recorded overall satisfaction ratings of 84 per cent, 91 per cent and 81 per cent respectively in the Passenger Focus survey.