London train services worse than year ago: poll

LONDON, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- More than a third of Londoners believe commuter train services in the British capital have gotten worse this year, a new poll revealed Wednesday.

The polling, conducted by YouGov, revealed rising dissatisfaction among Londoners at the performance of private train operating companies around London.

The polling asked Londoners about the performance of operators like Southern, South Western and South Eastern, and revealed that only 8 percent of Londoners think commuter trains have got better in the last year, with 37 percent of people saying they've got worse.

The report said long-suffering rail commuters have had to deal with another year of overcrowding, delays and fare increases for services going into stations such as Waterloo, London Bridge and Victoria.

With the train operating companies increasing fares by an above-inflation 3.4 percent in January, 73 percent of Londoners believe the national government made the wrong decision in allowing another hike in fares. In contrast, 76 percent of people back Khan's decision to freeze fares on all Transport for London (TfL) services.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the latest figures as a damning indictment of the continuing failure of train operating companies to provide an adequate service for passengers.

"Londoners are fed up of the repeated delays, cancelations and overcrowding getting in and out of London, and alongside problems with Network Rail, many timetables have become works of fiction for commuters over December," said Khan.

He said growing dissatisfaction with private train companies shows why a further rise in rail fares in January is unjustifiable.

Khan believes devolving suburban routes to TfL is the only viable long-term solution.

He wrote Wednesday to the CEO of Network Rail expressing concerns at the repeated failings of Network Rail infrastructure, and the knock-on effect on train reliability.

Stephen Joseph, CEO of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "We would welcome TfL taking control of more London suburban routes -- millions of commuters in and around London are regularly having to put up with poor performance and overcrowding while at the same time paying some of the most expensive fares in the country." Enditem