PASSENGER complaints to Great Western Railway have risen by almost a quarter, new figures show.

The company has apologised for its performance, saying its track record in 2018 was not good enough.

Figures from the Office of Rail and Road, the industry regulator, show GWR received on average 63 customer complaints for every 100,000 journeys taken on the company's trains between October and December last year. The figure was 23 per cent up on the same period in the previous year.

A spokesman for Swindon-based GWR said: “We are only too aware that performance last year was not good enough. Our customers have had every right to speak to us about their journey, and we’re really sorry to anyone who was affected.

“As a result, we worked with our partners across the industry to put a performance improvement plan in place. While there is still more to do, this has seen us move from delivering 68 per cent of our trains in the middle of last year to over 90 per cent today.”

The Caledonian Sleeper was the most commonly complained about rail provider, with 270 complaints per 100,000 passenger journeys. The sleeper train service runs between London and Scotland.