Nearly one in every ten trains that arrived at Farnham, Bentley and Alton station during the last financial year was late.

But rail passengers on the Alton to Waterloo line have it reasonably good when it comes to punctuality – unlike their counterparts between Guildford and Petersfield.

Figures that show the percentage of on-time and cancelled services at every South Western Railway station from April 2024 to this March have been released.

On-time trains are classed as services that are either exactly on time or less than three minutes late.

If you’re catching a train from Haslemere, then there’s one in four chance it will be late as just 75.2 per cent of services arrived on time during the period.

It’s in the bottom ten in Surrey for punctuality, with 2.2 per cent of services through the station being cancelled during the period.

The worst stations for cancellations locally are Milford and Witley with 3.5 per cent, with around 85 per cent of services arriving on time.

Liphook Station
Just 79.9 per cent of services were classified as on-time between April 2024 and March this year. (Tindle/Paul Ferguson)

But the figure is just 79.9 per cent at Liphook, with 2.8 per cent of services falling by the wayside.

“I’ve just got used to it,” said Mick Fielder, who was having a coffee outside Liphook station on Tuesday morning.

“It doesn’t make it acceptable, though. I actually think it’s got worse since this lot took over from South West Trains. I work in Guildford and there’s barely a day when a service isn’t late or cancelled.”

If you are travelling on the Portsmouth to Guildford line, Petersfield and Liss fare better with roughly 82 per cent of services arriving on time and 2.1 per cent being cancelled during the last year, compared to 2.7 at Godalming.

And it might be worth making the trip to Alton if you’re thinking of catching a train into the capital, with the terminus boasting the best figures in the patch.

Haslemere station, seen here in its South West Trains days, is one of the worst in Surrey for punctuality.

A decent-ish 91.5 per cent of services were on time and 0.9 per cent were cancelled, although it’s worth nothing the former figure is still roughly one in ten.

The numbers are similar for Farnham with 91.1 and 1.1 per cent, respectively, but both stations are starting points. Things deteriorate at Aldershot, with the percentage in cancellations rising from 1.1 to 1.6.

And if you’re catching a train at Woking, lower your expectations. Just 72.2 per cent of non-cancelled trains arrived on time at the Surrey hub, making it the worst in the county ahead of Guildford with 74.2 per cent.

There are government plans to stream data to stations in a further bid to highlight punctuality and show up poor performers.

“Passengers tell us they want a reliable, on-time train service,” said Natasha Grice, director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus.

“They will welcome improvements to information about the punctuality of their service and cancellations being shared more transparently.

“It’s important that the industry uses this information to drive up performance.”