WOULD you complain if the standard of service on your train journey was not to your satisfaction?

I once heard of the story of a woman who put in a complaint to a rail operator every day because her train was always overcrowded.

Her hope was that, as each new letter was recorded as a new complaint so, one day, a service boss would notice a spike in the figures and maybe do something about it.

Others, however, might take the view that, if half an hour of their day is wasted due to a train delay, it seems pointless spending another 15 minutes writing a letter or e-mail complaining about it.

The latest figures about complaints give us an idea of how the two service providers for Bolton - Northern Rail and TransPennine Express (TPE) - do in the eyes of their customers.

A report from the Office of Rail Regulation records how many complaints per 100,000 passenger journeys each firm received in the first three months of 2014 compared with the same period the previous year.

For TPE, it was 39.7 compared with 45 last year and for Northern it was 32.8 compared with 25.8 last year.

Considering Northern covers a huge area, stretching from Derbyshire to Northumbria and Merseyside to Yorkshire, that rate in itself is pretty low, but the increase in complaints is a cause for concern.

In contrast, TPE is improving its performance, but it still gets more complaints than 10 of the 15 rail providers nationally.

But TPE deserves a pat on the back for how quickly it gets back to unhappy customers.

The latest statistics show the firm responds to 99.9 per cent of complaints within 20 working days, compared with Northern's 68.9 per cent rate.

I am told that rail bosses take great interest in these figures and that they do make a difference 'on the ground' if things are not going as well they should.

So, next time you have a problem on your journey, get writing that complaint.