TRAIN company First Great Western has made a "significant improvement" according to a report out today.

The Swindon based firm has fared well in the Strategic Rail Authority's On Track report, due out today.

A survey carried out by the SRA ranked First Great Western above the average for Inter City operators in 10 out of 12 key issues.

These included frequency of trains, ticket buying facilities, length of journey time and punctuality. The report, which covers October 2001 to March 2002, found more than 80 per cent of customers were very or fairly satisfied with their journey experience.

It also showed a slight rise in punctuality, with four per cent more trains arriving within 10 minutes of their scheduled time compared to the previous six months.

The company has recently been boosted by the introduction of the new Adelante train on its main line through Swindon, and has also taken steps to improve stations.

Elaine Holt of First Great Western said: "This survey shows that although the action we have taken to improve our performance, stations, on-train service customer communication is working, we still need to do even better.

"Customer satisfaction may be on the way up, and higher than many other train companies but it is still simply not high enough.

"It may sound bizarre for us to be disappointed with a rise in punctuality and customer satisfaction but the truth is both these figures are still too low.

"It certainly won't happen overnight, but we are aiming to push them still higher." Nationally, the survey found train companies are still struggling to achieve improvements in the wake of the Hatfield disaster.

It says 23 out of the 25 train companies did show an improvement in performance, but only by a marginal amount.

It said services were still not as efficient as before the Hatfield crash, which happened in October 2000.