Customer complaints about transport in the region have shot up by 25 per cent in a year - with Metrolink moans TREBLING in that time.

Between July and December last year, customer services at TfGM received 2,393 complaints from passengers, who also submitted 18 compliments and 54 Freedom of Information requests.

That compares to 1,907 complaints, 12 compliments and 43 FOI requests between July to December 2012.

Most moans - 956 or 39.95pc - were about bus services. But they were down 17 per cent on last year.

Metrolink was to blame for 29.42pc of complaints with 704 - which is 485 more than last year and a massive increase of 310pc.

Facilities like offices and tickets received the third highest number of complaints, with 421, or 17.6pc - down on last year’s figure of 20.2pc.

The complaints, revealed at a TfGM Bus Committee meeting, are against a background of 110m bus journeys, 11m rail journeys and 13m Metrolink journeys over that period.

Response times to complaints, meanwhile, have improved.

Last year, 93 per cent of complaints were dealt with in eight days, with an average response time of six days.

That compares to 2012, when 86pc of responses were dealt with in 15 days. A TfGM spokesman said they were improving engagement with Twitter and a customer feedback panel.

He added: “We value the views of our customers and the increased level of engagement is inevitably reflected in the figures included in the report.

“TfGM is also delivering major improvements to the public transport network at the present time, including expanding the hugely popular Metrolink system – but they are changes that unavoidably come with some level of disruption.

“All that said, the number of complaints received has to be set against a context of more and more people choosing to travel on public transport.”

Number of complaints