PRIVATEERS should be given the boot from Britain’s railways, Labour demanded yesterday as new figures exposed a “significant decline” in passenger satisfaction.

The Transport Focus study found overall journey satisfaction for 2016 dropped two points from the previous year to 81 per cent.

Shambolic Southern, the firm locked in a bitter dispute with staff over driver-only trains, was at the bottom of the league tables with 65 per cent overall satisfaction.

It was followed by Thameslink (73 per cent), Southeastern (77 per cent) and Great Northern (78 per cent) — all owned by Southern’s parent company Govia, a partnership between private transport giants and the French state.

Labour shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: “With this decline in passenger satisfaction, it’s becoming more difficult for the government to justify allowing private and foreign state-owned companies to take money out of the system that should be used to improve services or hold fares down.

“It is time for our railways to be run under public ownership in the public interest as an integrated national asset in public hands with affordable fares for all and long-term investment in the railway network.”

Transport Salaried Staffs Association general secretary Manuel Cortes echoed this call.

“When, from John o’Groats to Lands End, passengers are being shunted into overcrowded carriages like cattle into cattle trucks and forced by law to pay annual price rises for an increasingly demeaning service, it’s no wonder they are fed-up,” he said.

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