A Southern train service (Picture:PA)

Southern Rail has admitted that they are failing customers after statistics revealed that one of Britain’s busiest commuter trains was late every day for a year.

The 7.29am Brighton to London Victoria train failed to deliver passengers to the capital on time on all of its 240 attempts attempts in 2014.

Speaking to the Guardian, commuter Magnus Kemp, from Brighton, said that passengers had come to expect a late arrival as the norm.

‘I don’t expect to arrive on time,’ she explained. ‘The train always slows down.


‘The Brits put up with it but it’s always been the same, trains have always been bad in this country.’

London Victoria station (Picture: PA)

The new revelation comes only a week after rail commuters – who fork up to £5,000 a year for a season ticket – were forced to pay 2.5 percent more for their fares.



David Scorey, managing director of Southern Rail, said: ‘I don’t think we’re delivering the level of performance customers expect.

‘We are delivering in a lot of areas, including investment and innovation, but not on performance. We’re doing more in that area, that’s a major area we’re focusing on.

‘Our network is very busy and congested. An analogy that I’d use is the M25 at its busiest time.

‘Our network is a bit like that and what we’re trying to do is run as many trains as we can because the capacity is needed.

He continued: ‘People want those trains, want seats on the trains, want trains to be as long as they can because there is demand for it.

‘If there is the most minor of problem or delay on a train, another train can be thrown off its path or slot on the network by a couple of minutes which can sometimes then snowball a little to five or six minutes late.

‘We’ve identified some issues with the 7.29, with the way it interacts with other services, but the timetable and the capacity demand is so intense that some of the options of what we can do are quite limited.’

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