FRUSTRATED Bolton commuters and politicians have described the results of Northern Rail’s ‘best ever’ customer satisfaction survey results as a smack in the face.

The local operator is celebrating achieving a score of 84 per cent in the National Rail Passenger Survey which asks passengers to rate the level of service they experience.

It was carried out in autumn last year and Northern said its results represent a six per cent point increase on its score the year before and the best figures it has posted in the 12 years of its current franchise operation.

But the results have left commuters and politicians in Bolton baffled — with many who use the overcrowded local services saying they were not questioned for the survey.

For years now, The Bolton News has reported on the issues of severe overcrowding on the borough’s trains and last week we ran a report in which commuters stated that on several recent occasions people have fainted on board a busy morning service to Manchester because of the cramped conditions.

Bolton West MP Chris Green has also raised the issue with Northern Rail boss Alex Hynes after being contacted by constituents.

Mr Green said he would like to see the breakdown of Northern Rail’s survey as it did not tally with the experiences of Bolton residents he has spoken to.

He said: “Northern Rail may want to have a word with whoever conducted this survey for them because they certainly haven’t been speaking to the hundreds upon hundreds of my constituents who have to force their way onto the peak rail services coming through Lostock and Blackrod and the other stations in Bolton West.

He added: “This survey is a smack in the face to the commuters who are packed onto carriages like sardines in order to get to work every day. I would be very interested to see the broken down data of this survey because I can’t believe it is showing the real picture.”

One of those constituents, Horwich Resident Victoria Louise agreed with her local MP.

She said: “I would love to have some Northern Rail executives come and get on the train at Horwich, so they get the 'full experience'.

“It seems that not one extra cartridge has been added to the service I use but the service which gets people in to Manchester after 9am does.

“The results of this survey are laughable. I find that figure extremely hard to believe and suspect a bit of spin has been used with the results.”

Bolton North East MP David Crausby added: “I am meeting with Northern Rail soon and I will ask them what scientific base these results have come from.

“They do seem odd to me and the company can’t have spoken to the large number of people that I have spoken to on this issue in Bolton — if they had they would have got a completely different picture.

“It seems that Northern Rail are in denial if they are making statements like that and are not prepared to face up to what a dreadful service they offer in Bolton.”

Speaking about the results, Natalie Loughborough, Northern’s customer service director said: “We are delighted to be one of the few train operators to significantly improve customer satisfaction scores — this is our best result in 12 years and a major step up from our bottom of league table position just two years ago.

“Our National Rail Passenger Survey performance follows improvements across the Northern network — rom how we present trains and new customer information screens to the service on our trains and at stations.”