COMPLAINTS against South West Trains have risen while all its regional rivals have fallen, a report published today reveals.

The number of complaints received about the company - which runs the Weymouth to Waterloo service - rose from 331 to 368 in the year running up to March 31.

The news comes from a report released by rail passenger watchdog Southern England Rail Passengers Committee and will come as a blow to SWT which had seen figures drop by half in the previous two years.

Industrial disputes by staff have been blamed for the rise, which leaves SWT the only company in the area to see complaints climb.

Other rail companies fared better with Connex South Central coming out on top with a third fewer complaints than last year, while Connex South Eastern dropped from 670 complaints to 537.

Overall, complaints fell by 16 per cent, from 1,975 to 1,656 - the lowest number since 1997. Forty-eight per cent of those cases were appeals from passengers dissatisfied with their train companies' response to their complaint.

More than a third of complaints were concerned with train performance and the quality of passengers' journeys, while 196 complaints were received about stations and standard of services at them.

A further 162 complaints reflected passengers' discontent with the compensation when things went wrong and more than 100 others referred to the quality of correspondence received from train companies.

A spokesman for South West Trains said: "Complaints have fallen over the last two years, but sadly, the rise this year may be due to January's industrial action."

Rail Passengers' Committee chairman Wendy Toms said: "This rise is disappointing. We had expected to see a drop in complaints made to us about all train companies last year, bearing in mind that the previous year saw the worst disruption to the railways since World War Two."