Manchester stations among UK’s worst

Passengers using Manchester Oxford Road suffer the worst out of all the stations analysed, with more than two-thirds of its trains late of cancelled since the beginning of the year, according to the research by consumer group Which?.

This was even worse at peak times, with more than three-quarters of trains not departing or arriving as scheduled.

The station is one of the main destinations visited by trains out of Bolton and two other frequent stops - Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria - also made the list after more than half of trains from each station were cancelled or delayed.

Other stations outside of London include York, Sheffield, Gatwick Airport, Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Woking and Liverpool Central.

The study analysed data from website On Time Trains to reveal the proportion of trains which were at least one minute late or cancelled from the busiest stations inside and outside of London since the start of 2018.

Last month the government commissioned a review of Britain's railways which will consider all parts of the network, including accountability, the franchising system and value for money.

New timetables introduced in May saw widespread disruption to services in the south-east and north of England.

Which? managing director of public markets Alex Hayman said: "Passengers have told us reliability is hugely important to them. People have been left deeply frustrated at the unacceptably high levels of delays and cancellations which impact on their everyday lives.

"Passengers must be at the centre of the forthcoming government rail review, it must look at performance targets to drive improvements in punctuality and reliability for passengers.

"The review must not be used as an excuse to delay real action to improve passengers' experiences on the trains today. As a first step, the government must introduce fully automatic compensation, ensuring more passengers get the money they are owed."