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The majority of rail passengers do not feel they are getting value for money from their train journeys, according to a new survey.

Passenger Focus, the independent rail consumer watchdog, says overall customer satisfaction has dropped for the first time in three years and more than a quarter of passengers surveyed were unhappy at the level of space in train carriages.

Train operators First Great Western and First Capital Connect were among the largest companies to have shown a slump in satisfaction levels, with First Great Western customer satisfaction registering a six per cent drop and Capital Connect a five per cent drop.

Long distance services bucked the negative trend as 87 per cent of passengers embarking on long journeys said they were satisfied with their travels. The overall figure, including inter-city and commuter lines, was 79 per cent.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus, said the train operators with the biggest passenger satisfaction drops needed to "listen to their passengers and take action".

"We hope that this decrease is a dip and not the beginning of a trend," Mr Smith said.

George Muir, from the Association of Train Operating Companies, told BBC Radio Five Live's Wake up to Money programme that he wanted to see "dynamic vision" from the government to increase train capacity and appease customers unhappy at the lack of space.

"We do take this survey very seriously indeed," Mr Muir said. "We really do listen to passengers, it's passengers we want to please and it's passengers we want to attract onto the railway.

"Overall satisfaction with the railway is still pretty high. By European standards it is pretty high."

He also defended the pricing of services which consumers said they were too high for them to feel they were receiving value for money.

"The dip down in value for money is largely around London and the south east," Mr Muir said.

"This is a very difficult area to understand properly because the average cost of rail travel is about 17p a mile, which is under half the cost of travelling by car."