PASSENGERS on East Coast rail services have rated their satisfaction with the service at 59 percent.

Around 7,400 rail commuters across the country were surveyed by consumer group Which? and East Coast ranked fifth out of 19 operators.

Best was Merseyrail, with 70 percent satisfaction, but in the lowest spots were Greater Anglia and Southeastern, which both run services out of London and scored 40 percent satisfaction.

CrossCountry, which runs trains from Scotland and the north through York to the Midlands and south west, scored 52 percent satisfaction, and First TransPennine Express which runs many routes around Yorkshire was ranked at just 48 percent satisfaction among the passengers surveyed.

Which? said is is now encouraging passengers to formally complain to train companies, and share their experience on its website to build a picture of the problems passengers face so the problems can be gathered into a dossier of customer complaints and presented to each of the train companies.