Transport for Wales has the worst overall customer satisfaction of any train company in the UK, a passenger survey has found, with scores for reliability, value for money, and cleanliness plummeting in the past 18 months.

The Rail User Survey, organised by Transport Focus, has asked passengers in Great Britain about travelling by rail and how satisfied they were overall with their most recent train journey since 2021.

Transport for Wales (TfW) passengers, surveyed between October 2021 and January 2022, gave the company an overall satisfaction rate of 86, a cleanliness rate of 82, a punctuality/reliability rate of 79, and a value for money rate of 74.

In the most recent survey, conducted between March and August 2023, those numbers fell to 72, 69, 59 and 51 respectively.

The 72 overall satisfaction rating is the lowest among all 15 train companies.

Jan Chaudhry-Van der Velde, Chief Operating Officer at TfW, said: “After years of stagnation, there is a huge railway transformation program being delivered on this network and while we make these investments, parts of the railway have been like building sites throughout 2023.

“As we modernise and enhance infrastructure and rolling stock, it's undoubtedly been a painful period for our passengers with many rail replacement bus services in operation.

“Our new trains have been delayed by the pandemic so our older trains have had to carry on longer than intended, but the good news is the new trains are now arriving and will continue to replace the old ones throughout the rest of this year and into 2024.

“We've invested more than £1m in station improvements and improved customer information systems.

“This includes launching an online map showing exactly where your train is at any given time, new customer information screens at our stations and mobile customer information points as well.”

Welsh Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, Natasha Asghar MS said: “Commuters in Wales are understandably disappointed with the lack of progress on public transport in Wales. With Labour-run TfW at the bottom of the list for customer satisfaction I can see why there is so much frustration from people simply trying to get to and from work.”