Rail woes soar despite £9bn upgrade

Jul 9 2009

Passenger complaints have soared on a main London to Scotland rail line where problems have persisted despite a £9 billion upgrade, it has been revealed.

West Coast Main Line operator Virgin Trains received 52.1% more complaints in the 12 months ending March 2009 than in the previous 12 months, figures from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) showed.

The statistics also showed that only 76.4% of Virgin's trains ran on time in the January-March 2009 period - well below the national average of 90.3%.