A Kent railway station has been named the worst for commuting into London.

Trains in Sevenoaks are more likely to be delayed by more than five minutes or cancelled, than be on time.

Last year commuters across the county faced a number of problems.

Regular industrial action affected travel after continued disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

In November, it was also announced that ticket fares were to increase by nearly 6%.

The rankings have been released in the latest annual analysis by rail performance-tracking site On Time Trains.

It chose 30 major London commuter stations located outside the M25. Each one is within an hour's travel time of the capital and has more than a million (pre-pandemic) passenger journeys per year.

The stations were judged on performance, frequency, speed and value of peak time services.

It was revealed that Sevenoaks had dropped six places to the bottom of the rankings.

Fewer than one third of its commuter services ran on time last year. Instead, it was more common for a service to be delayed by more than five minutes or cancelled.

The Southeastern trains ran more slowly than most of the other stations on the list – at an average of 37mph rather than 42mph.

They also came in at a higher cost of 44p per mile vs 39p per mile. Despite this, services did run reasonably frequently and arrived every eight minutes.

A spokesman from Southeastern said: “We run one of the busiest rail networks in the country, with nearly 1,800 trains per day across South East London, Kent and East Sussex.

“Three out of four trains arrive at Sevenoaks within three minutes of their scheduled time but unfortunately, there were several issues that affected our services last year, including a series of storms as well as trespass and track incidents.

“Despite this, the number of trains we’ve had to cancel is still one of the lowest in the country at 2.1%.

“We’re working with our industry partners to bring in measures that will help us to resolve the other problems we’ve faced, such as improving drainage, quicker repairs for any infrastructure failures, and earlier interventions that will stop people going onto the tracks.

“We are also making several refinements to our timetable in June to further boost our services.

“Southeastern is committed to providing a better, more reliable railway, and this includes working hard to improve punctuality and minimise cancellations wherever possible.”

Other Kent stations didn't fare much better – all falling in the bottom third of the table.

Gravesend came 21st and had one of the worst scores for value and frequency. An annual season ticket will set you back £5,584, which is around 57p per mile.

Commuters are charged £728 a year more than those travelling from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, which was 12th and one of the best for value.

Tonbridge ranked 24th, with just 25% of trains arriving on time last year.

“Southeastern is committed to providing a better, more reliable railway, and this includes working hard to improve punctuality and minimise cancellations wherever possible.”

One of the worst was Chatham. Coming in at 28th it had poor results in all four categories.

Chelmsford in Essex took the number one spot after placing second last year.

Its commuter services were the best performing of all 30 stations, with 88% running on time and barely 1% cancelled.

After an increase in the number of morning peak services, passengers waited for an average of eight minutes on their way to and from London Liverpool Street.

The trains run by Greater Anglia were neither the fastest or the cheapest, but their strong performance and frequency were enough for the station to be crowned the best.