IT HAS been revealed that First Great Western has some of the worst feedback among its online customers.

In a recent study of responses on social media site Twitter, it was found 36 per cent of the tweets relating to the train operator were negative. This figure was joint highest with South West trains.

The study was carried out by social media company Brand-watch, who analysed 92,000 tweets across a number of train companies. They had been commissioned to examine customer feedback along the country’s 10 busiest commuter lines.

However, First Great Western have welcomed the feedback and say the figures show social media is a good way of monitoring customer opinions.

A spokesman said: “The figure shown is much lower than some of the main global brands in other industries, so it is important not to focus purely on the negative.

“These results show that more than 60 per cent of the feedback we receive is either positive or neutral.

“We actively put ourselves out there and encourage our customers to give us feedback of all kinds for us to respond to.”

Throughout the whole study, the main focus of customers complaints towards train companies was punctuality, air conditioning and broken trains.

One of the comments on Twitter described First Great Western as ‘truly useless’.

They wrote: “@FGW trains are truly useless. Absolutely nowhere to sit, stand or breathe properly apparently due to no AC. Pleasant journey ahead!”

First Great Western, who use the Twitter hashtag @FGW, regularly uses Twitter to respond to customers’ queries and complaints.

Their account is manned by an employee between 7am and 10pm and has seen more than 100,000 tweets posted. They say the outcome of this study will not put them off using the site.

The spokesman said: “Twitter is a really useful tool by which we can respond quickly to customer’s concerns and questions and we promote it as such.

“Much of the negative feedback is something which is happening to a customer there and then.”

Brandwatch say the study was not meant as an attack on the train operators but was simply a way of looking at customer responses overall.

Joel Windels, of Brandwatch, said: “This study is in no way meant to simply highlight the bad job done by a few companies.

“We were asked to look at the 10 busiest lines and analyse the feedback from the customers.

“The social team at First Great Western do a great job and this is not meant as an insult.”