AFTER three years of unrelenting bad news, Britain’s rail network finally got a lucky break yesterday. The record billionth passenger to catch a train this year turned out to be a completely satisfied customer. She always got a seat, rarely suffered delays and even welcomed the occasional nightmare journey as a “topic for dinner party conversation”.

Lynn O’Malley, 36, a solicitor from Norwich, was presented with a year’s free train travel to celebrate the first time since 1961 that the network had carried a billion passengers in a year. The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) insisted that she had been chosen “at random” at Liverpool Street station in London yesterday. The association had calculated that the billionth passenger would pass through the ticket barriers between 10am and 11am.

Ms O’Malley’s generous views may have been helped by her train arriving a minute early. Passengers on other inter-city services have been less fortunate, with a third arriving ten or more minutes late in the past year. Across the network, a fifth of trains still arrive late, and yet commuters will be hit on January 4 by the highest fare rises since British Rail was privatised seven years ago.

Neither Ms O’Malley, nor her husband, Steve Setford, 43, need worry about the increase of up to 9 per cent on some season tickets.

Ms O’Malley, whose annual ticket between Norwich and Ipswich costs £1,200, said she had witnessed a sharp improvement in train performance. “It was bad for a long while after the Hatfield crash of three years ago but now I catch reliable, clean trains and they are never so full that I have to stand.”

Her only complaint was that her morning train was sometimes annoyingly punctual. “It’s disappointing to find the train has left bang on time when I’m a couple of minutes late arriving at the station.”

An ATOC spokesman admitted it had been fortunate to pick such an enthusiastic cheerleader for the industry. A government survey last month found that less than a third of passengers were satisfied with how train companies dealt with delays, and only 43 per cent felt their tickets were good value for money.

But the public’s low opinion of the railways has not prevented them from boarding in increasing numbers. The network is busier than ever, with passenger numbers up by 30 per cent since privatisation.

While train journeys are still below their 1955 peak of 1.1 billion, that record was achieved before Dr Beeching closed a third of the network in the 1960s. The association is confident the 1955 record will be broken this decade as it tempts more drivers out of their cars.

But even Ms O’Malley is not prepared to give up her five-year-old Fiat Punto. “The train doesn’t go to Tesco’s,” she said.

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