A new survey of passengers of all Britain’s rail companies has shown only 40% of Greater Anglia travellers are satisfied with their service – the joint lowest in the country.

But the findings in the survey, carried out by the Consumers’ Association magazine Which?, prompted head-scratching at the company.

They were released only a month after a survey from the official rail watchdog Passenger Focus found increasing levels of satisfaction with services.

The Which? survey results were drawn from 507 Greater Anglia passengers – nationally 7,415 travellers took part in the survey. Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “It’s disappointing to see some train companies consistently falling down on the basics of customer service, with dirty and overcrowded carriages and toilets that don’t work.

“Seven rail franchises end in the next two years and we want to see passengers’ experiences put right at the heart of the tender process so companies respond to consumer expectations and can be held to account if they don’t.”

Last month the Passenger Focus survey showed satisfaction had increased on services across the region between spring and autumn 2013 – 80% of passengers were satisfied with its services.

A Greater Anglia spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the findings of the Which? survey. The results are based on a significantly smaller sample size than the National Passenger Survey by Passenger Focus, who survey almost 2,200 of our customers. We always welcome all customer feedback and we recognise there is much more for us to do to improve passenger satisfaction across our network.

“We are working closely with Network Rail to provide more consistent and better levels of train service.”