A TRAIN company says it will develop plans to address customer complaints after travellers highlighted problems with punctuality, cleanliness and helpfulness of staff in a national survey.

TransPennine Express said it “remained focused” on improving its scores following the release of the latest National Rail Passenger Survey.

Areas showing declining passenger satisfaction included space for luggage, toilet facilities and the level of crowding on services.

The firm showed an overall satisfaction score of 81 per cent, three per cent down on the results from last year, and was ranked jointly eighth from bottom, along with Northern (81 per cent), in the survey.

Customers did note improvements in the availability of seating and shelter facilities plus the availability of wifi at its stations.

Kathryn O’Brien, customer experience director for TransPennine Express said: “While our results remain at a high level overall, we appreciate that there have been some drops in some areas and we will now work through the detail and develop plans to address these.”

Northern’s performance scores were largely unchanged with improvements in the upkeep and repair of trains, provision of information during the journey and toilet facilities categories.

But like TransPennine the level of crowding and punctuality/reliability were highlighted as issues with passenger satisfaction declining in these.

Virgin Trains East Coast led the way in the survey, scoring an overall 92 per cent customer satisfaction. Its contract is being cut short by the Government from 2020 after bosses conceded they had overpaid for the franchise.

David Horne, Virgin Trains managing director on the east coast said: “These figures are a testament to our continued investment in services on the east coast and demonstrate that we are continuing to deliver for passengers.”

Meanwhile, Grand Central ranked number one for overall journey satisfaction and was also rated best value long distance train operator for the sixth year running.

The survey, from autumn last year, revealed that 96 per cent of Grand Central’s passengers were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their journey, placing the train operating company in top spot for overall satisfaction.