The Central Rail Users' Consultative Committee received 4,996 complaints between July and September.

Committee Chairman, David Bertram, said: "The reality is that reliability and punctuality are now no better than when privatisation began."

Late again

Complaints about punctuality topped the list of grievances, rising by 88%, while those about reliability were up 86%.

The number of complaints about information availability increased 66% and overcrowding by 64%. In all, complaints were up in 30 of the 52 aspects of service recorded.

The committee also reported that the overall national figures showed that for the year ending September 1998, the proportion of train delays was 35% higher and cancellations were 33% higher than in the 12 months ending March 1997, which marked the completion of rail privatisation.

Virgin least punctual

Richard Branson's Virgin West Coast Scottish route was still at the bottom of the punctuality league over the 12-months to September 1998.

It managed to run only 74.4% of trains on time, against a target of 90%.

The general decline in performance led to passenger discounts being triggered on 12 routes, compared with only five for the 12 months period to September 1997.

Virgin: Worst in the UK

The national average of delayed trains was 91 per 1,000. The best performance was achieved by ScotRail's Express services with only 30 out of 1,000 trains arriving late. By contrast, 256 of every 1,000 of Virgin's West Coast Scottish trains were late.

On service reliability - the percentage of trains which actually run - the worst performer was Silverlink's North London Lines route with 31 out of every 1,000 trains cancelled. By contrast, ScotRail Express only cancelled one in 1,000.

Two in five of routes failed to meet Passenger's Charter targets in the 12 months to September 1998. This triggered discounts on four routes compared with only one in the previous year.

'Complaints encouraged'

Ivor Warburton, Chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies said many of the increases were due to rail firms actively encouraging people to complain about substandard services.

"Performance and reliability will improve noticeably once railways start to feel the benefit of new trains, new track, new signalling and additional drivers.

"At the moment we've got the builders in - and that's reflected in these complaint figures," he said.

However, Mr Bertram said passengers needed to see "fast action remedies to combat this decline in quality".