REVEALED: Southern Rail record worst punctuality figures in six years

Just 56.7 per cent of mainline and coastal services arrived at their destination within five minutes of the scheduled time in the four weeks to December 10, according to Network Rail data - among the poorest performances since publically-available records began in 2010.

A company spokesman apologised and blamed the figures on recent industrial action by workers.

He said: ‘This reflects the significant impact that the wholly unjustified industrial action being taken by Aslef and the RMT is having and the on-going additional knock-on delays from the London Bridge redevelopment.

‘There have also been performance issues on Great Northern caused by weather, signal failures in key locations and problems with the ageing trains we have begun to replace on this route.

‘We’re sorry - our passengers deserve better and, together with Network Rail, we’re working hard to improve performance.’