A RAIL passenger group has said figures that show an improvement in the performance of South West Trains following an overhaul of its timetable should not come as a surprise.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, in the first four weeks after the timetable was introduced last December, 88.5 per cent of trains ran on time - an improvement of almost 12 per cent on the previous year.

According to train bosses, the new timetable has also seen daily improvements in public performance measure - the way in which the network is monitored.

But Rail Passengers' Committee Southern said the news should not come as much of a surprise, as they predicted the changing of the timetable would make it easier for performance to improve.

They claimed that, by making train journeys longer, more time was allowed for services to reach their destinations, therefore giving them a better chance of arriving on time.

Tim Nicholson, chairman of Rail Passengers' Committee Southern England, said as a result the targets should be made tougher to reflect the increased ease in achieving them.

"It will be completely wrong if targets are not made tougher and passengers do not get compensation for poor performance, even though their journey is slower than it was before and the performance figures show an entirely fictitious improvement.

"We call on the Strategic Rail Authority and the Department for Transport to put this right at once."

The timetable shake-up was the biggest since1967 and required the timetable to be re-written from scratch to reflect changes in demand.

South West Trains' managing director Andrew Haines said: "While we recognise that some passengers will feel they have lost out due to extended journey times, we believe that overall the new timetable has benefited the majority of passengers."