Train operators in the West Midlands and Shropshire ranked on passenger satisfaction - here's how they scored

The West Midlands Railway (WMR) has been named as the eighth-best train operating company in Britain for customer satisfaction in the latest Transport Focus Rail User Survey. 

The survey was conducted between December 6 and May 25, and has revealed that the operator has an overall satisfaction rating of 87 per cent.

Merseyrail topped the charts with a 91 per cent overall satisfaction rating while Crosscountry ranked lowest with 75 per cent. Transport for Wales (TfW) ranked fourth-worst with an overall satisfaction rating of 84 per cent while Avanti West Coast had a score of 86 per cent. 

The survey asks rail passengers about their overall satisfaction with their most recent rail journey and asks them to consider various aspects such as value for money, punctuality, cleanliness, information during journeys and frequency of services. 

Across the various elements that passengers were asked to consider, WMR scored best in the 'information during journey' segment, with a satisfaction rating of 80 per cent.

Meanwhile, 78 per cent of passengers were satisfied with the punctuality/reliability of WMR's services, 71 per cent were satisfied with the frequency of trains on their route, and 77 per cent of passengers were satisfied with the cleanliness of services.

However, just 55 per cent of passengers on West Midlands Railway services said they are satisfied with 'value for money' and 69 per cent were satisfied with the level of crowding. 

This compares to just 48 per cent of passengers who were satisfied with the level of crowding on Crosscountry services. 

Transport Focus said WMR receives an average of 30 complaints per 100,000 journeys. 

A West Midlands Railway spokesperson said: "We run more than 1,200 services each day and work closely with industry partners to continuously enhance customer satisfaction. The results of the latest Transport Focus survey reflect our dedication to providing a positive experience for our passengers, and we will strive to continue making improvements going forward."

Despite ranking fourth-worst in the survey for 'overall satisfaction', Transport for Wales is pleased to have improved again with its sore rising from 82 per cent in the previous survey. 

Lewis Brencher, Executive Director of Customer and Communications, said: "We are pleased to once again see an improvement in the overall satisfaction of our customers.

"As more of our £800m fleet of brand-new trains have come into service, customers are benefitting better reliability, bigger capacity, clearer customer information and cleaner, modern trains.

"We will continue to challenge ourselves to provide the highest standards of service for our customers and with more than 50 brand new trains still to enter service, we can expect to see more improvements right across the Wales and Borders network."

Passengers on Avanti West Coast services were particularly impressed with the cleanliness of the operator's trains. 85 per cent said they were satisfied with cleanliness. 

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: "We’ve worked hard to improve our performance and we have seen the overall figure for cancellations we are responsible for reduce by one-third over the past year. This improvement has continued in more recent periods. 

"It’s really pleasing to see that customers have recognised this on top of the investment in our trains by introducing our new Evero fleet and refurbishing our Pendolinos as well as introducing more services. 

"While we welcome these survey results from Transport Focus, we know that there is still more to be done. We will continue to work closely with industry partners to make sure our operation continues to run better, day in day out and our customers get the service that they deserve."

Below is a list of how rail operators in the region faired in the survey. 

West Midlands Railway

Overall satisfaction - 87 per cent

Punctuality/reliability - 78 per cent

Frequency of trains on route - 71 per cent

Level of crowding - 69 per cent

Cleanliness - 77 per cent

Information during journey - 80 per cent

Value for money - 55 per cent

Transport for Wales

Overall satisfaction - 84 per cent

Punctuality/reliability - 71 per cent

Frequency of trains on route - 60 per cent

Level of crowding - 70 per cent

Cleanliness - 79 per cent

Information during journey - 80 per cent

Value for money - 50 per cent

Avanti West Coast

Overall satisfaction - 86 per cent

Punctuality/reliability - 76 per cent

Frequency of trains on route - 74 per cent

Level of crowding - 69 per cent

Cleanliness - 85 per cent

Information during journey - 81 per cent

Value for money - 63 per cent

Results from the survey can be found here.