NORTH Western Trains have been branded 'D' for dismal in a report by government regulators.

The rail company was given a 'D' for reliability by The Office of Passenger Rail Franchising.

North Western Trains also fared badly in the percentage of late services - nearly 10 per cent of trains were late last year.

Also, despite having a poor timekeeping record, Virgin West Coast managed to score 'C' following improvements on services to the North West.

John Moorhouse, from Manchester's Central Rail Users Consultative Committee, said: "North Western Trains are, overall, doing worse than last year - even though passengers in the North West saw an increase to their fares at the start of this year.

"North Western Trains are not up to the standard that we would like to see."

However, on a brighter note, around 4,000 passengers from across the North West were interviewed both on-train and at stations.

They were asked to rate their satisfaction levels on things like cleanliness on trains and conductors - scoring 1 to 10.

Between January and June 1998, on-train cleanliness scored an average of 7.5 whereas on-train conductors scored an impressive average of 9.1.

Commenting on this little piece of good news was press officer Keith Lumley, from North Western Trains.

He said: "In respect to the customer satisfaction survey, some factors have shown an improvement, particularly the on-train conductor."

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