SOUTHERN was outed as the “worst train franchise in England” during a Commons debate about the company’s performance.

Sussex MPs Caroline Lucas, Nick Herbert, Tim Loughton and Maria Caulfield were among a group of politicians who met to discuss the firm with rail minister Claire Perry this week.

Problems with frequent delays, station skipping, overcrowding, cleanliness of carriages and passenger compensation were all discussed.

Nick Herbert, Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs, kicked off the debate by declaring: “According to this authoritative [Transport Focus] survey, more than a quarter, one in every four, of passengers travelling on Southern are dissatisfied with its performance.

“That makes Southern officially the worst franchise in England. It has the lowest satisfaction rate of any franchise. The company should hang its head in shame at what passengers are saying.”

Responding to statistics showing Southern’s performance had improved in recent months, Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Brighton commuters certainly do not see any improvement on the Southern line.

"They are fed up with the service they are seeing—not least the notorious 7.29 train that did not arrive on time once in a whole year.”

Rail minister Claire Perry MP said she and the Department for Transport are “determined” to hold the rail industry to account.

She said: “Whatever the structure happens to be, I just want better services to be delivered. I believe that the best way to do that is through transparency, a continued focus on quality in the franchising process and all of us being involved in holding the companies to account.”

Speaking after the debate, Maria Caulfield, Conservative MP for Lewes, warned Southern’s inability to “get the basics right” was proving detrimental to further development of the railways.

She said: “The company needs to be getting the basics right, as other rail companies do – so that we can focus on further advances for my constituents, such as helping disabled people gain better access to trains, the provision of more stopping services at Cooksbridge and helping people with bikes who wish to travel by train.”

Southern Rail told The Argus its performance had suffered particularly since tracks into London Bridge were reduced as part of the £6.5billion Thameslink programme.

A spokesman said: “This, together with a number of other infrastructure and operational issues over the year led to a sustained period of delays and cancellations across our network.

“The Office of Rail and Road has recently pointed out Network Rail’s poor performance on our busy network.

"We are working with Network Rail to deliver a joint improvement plan that is focused on improvements to its infrastructure while at the same time creating a more robust timetable.

"As a result, Southern’s performance has been improving month by month and is now 11.4% higher than it was in January.

"However, we know we still have much to do and are working hard to improve further.”