If you live in Britain, you probably have strong opinions on the trains. It’s pretty much just a universal fact. Whether you love or hate your local operator, swear by your railcard or hate rail travel altogether, you definitely have thoughts.
But thoughts are not facts, and it’s facts that the Telegraph has used to compile a definitive ranking of the nation’s major train companies. The newspaper gave each service operator a score out of 10 on five key criteria including: price, comfort, quality of service, how practical the service is to use (ease of buying or refunding a ticket and accessibility of information), and the variety of destinations available. Each category was added up to get an overall score out of 50, and then ranked. The higher the number, the better the train line. Pretty simple stuff.
There are a total of 32 different train operators in the UK, but the Telegraph’s study stuck to the 20 biggest. It didn’t include those only running to airports, open-access firms like Lumo and Grand Central, or the London Underground. It also excluded heritage lines, the Elizabeth line, Eurostar, and the Caledonian Sleeper.
The best rail operators in the UK
So who is chugging along the best? According to the Telegraph that’s Merseyrail, which ended up with 37 out of 50. Its greatest asset is its service, which scored nine out of 10, meaning trains tend to turn up on time, and are rarely cancelled. Comfort was also a positive, netting eight points.
On price it only received six points, making it the company’s weakest point. The Telegraph also hit out at its colour-scheme, saying it boasts ‘probably the ugliest train and station livery in the country’.
In second place was Scotrail, scoring 34.5. Having recently scrapped peak fares for good, it might surprise some to discover that it was let down by a six out of 10 for pricing. However, being the national operator for the entire country of Scotland, it’s no surprise that it bagged an impressive nine, the best on the list, for its destinations and stations. Scotrail services cover quite a few major tourist destinations, including the impressive Glenfinnan Viaduct from Harry Potter.
Great Western Railway scored 34 out of 50, and came third. The Telegraph described it as having ‘the most enduring brand in UK rail’, and its highest score was an eight in the destinations category.
The world train company in Britain
On the other side of the tracks, CrossCountry found itself in last place. Although it covers a huge chunk of the UK – all the way from Aberdeen to Penzance, although no longer in one go – it received an abysmal two out of 10 on comfort, which becomes a pretty big issue when you’re making the journey from Scotland to Cornwall.
Service was also lacking in the Telegraph’s study, with hundreds of cancellations every month. CrossCountry trains were labelled overcrowded, old and expensive. The Telegraph described CrossCountry’s score as ‘a worrying result for such an important network’.
Every UK rail operator ranked by the Telegraph
Here’s how every major train company in the UK fared in the Telegraph’s study.
- Merseyrail: 37/50
- ScotRail: 34.5/50
- Great Western Railway (GWR): 34/50
- Transport for Wales: 33/50
- London North Eastern Railway (LNER): 32.5/50
- Avanti West Coast: 32/50
- Greater Anglia: 32/50
- West Midlands Railway/London Northwestern: 31.5/50
- Chiltern Railways: 31/50
- London Overground (Arriva Rail London): 30.5/50
- Southeastern 30/50
- East Midlands Railway (EMR) : 30/50
- South Western Railway (SWR): 29.5/50
- Northern Trains: 29/50
- C2c: 28/50
- Govia Thameslink Railway: 27/50
- Southern: 26/50
- Great Northern: 25/50
- TransPennine Express: 24/50
- CrossCountry: 23/50
You can read the Telegraph’s full study here.
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