KEEPING passengers informed about rail delays is still a “big problem”, the managing director of South Eastern Trains has admitted.

Michael Holden says improving communication with passengers is the company’s top objective.

Mr Holden was speaking at a meeting in Tonbridge, organised by the Rail Passengers Committee (RPC) Southern England to coincide with the publication of its annual report.

He said: “We are trying to change from thinking railways to thinking customer. We know we have a big problem. We agree we have work to do to improve how we respond to serious service disruption and keeping people informed.”

Rail-user groups were joined at the meeting by members of the public, senior staff from Southern England’s train operation companies, Network Rail, the British Transport Police and the Strategic Rail Authority at Tonbridge School.

The programme included a disruption workshop and a public question and answer session.

The RPC report concluded that while improvements have been made, rail companies still had a long way to go to satisfy customers.

A survey of 50 season ticket holders found that South Eastern Trains was the most reliable in the region, but fewer than three quarters of the trains in question arrived within five minutes of their scheduled time.

Overall, 80.1 per cent of all South Eastern Trains arrived within five minutes of schedule - an improvement on the previous two years. The figure was slightly lower at 75.3 per cent for peak trains specifically.

South Eastern Trains has seen a major reduction in complaints about train performance, from 216 in 2001/2 to 83 in 2003/4, but complaints about stations and timetables have both risen.

New fleets of trains have been introduced in Kent and all slam-door trains should be replaced before the middle of 2005, the RPC says.

However, the uncertainty over the future of Kent rail services incorporating the Channel Tunnel Rail Link needs to be resolved quickly, Southern chairman Tim Nicholson said: “We can’t go on forever. We want to hear who is being appointed to run the trains. Let’s get on with it.”