HAMPSHIRE’s principal train operating company has been ranked one of the worst in the country.

South Western Railway has been ranked the third worst rail operator in the country for customer satisfaction by passenger transport campaign group Transport Focus.

The data showed that only 75 per cent of South Western railway passengers were happy with their service while only 36 per cent of peak-time passengers said they were dissatisfied with the service offering.

The operator also scored below the national average in the value for money, punctuality and crowding categories with scores of 36 per cent, 64 per cent and 57 per cent retrospectively.

The statistics are from the National Rail Passenger Survey which surveyed 27,819 passengers across the country between September and November 2017.

Meanwhile, Southern Rail, which operates services between Southampton Central and Fareham, Havant and Brighton, was ranked the second worst in the country with only 72 per cent of passengers satisfied with the service.

Anthony Smith, CEO of Transport Focus, said: “For passengers, it’s all about performance – these value for money scores reflect patchy reliability.

“In London and the South East, Southern, Thameslink and Southeastern passengers have felt performance pick up.

“However, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express and Arriva Trains Wales passengers, among others, have been buffeted by poorer performance.

“Train companies and Network Rail need to keep to their basic promises and deliver a relentless focus on day-to-day performance and better information during disruption.”

In response, an SWR spokesperson said: “We are disappointed but not surprised with the results as the survey was undertaken during the weeks following extensive work to lengthen platforms at Waterloo, which can now accommodate longer trains with more capacity.

“We are sorry that performance was not good during the survey period."

Following the results, SWR added that it was working with Network Rail to improve the response to incidents and their prevention while working on making trains reliable.