Delays on South Central trains have soared since the Government forced Railtrack into administration, the Tories claimed today.

Figures obtained by the Conservatives revealed 50 per cent of the company's trains on the Sussex Coast route were delayed in the month to December 8 last year.

This compared with 32.5 per cent of trains running late in the preceding 11 months.

A total of 49.7 per cent of trains on the company's South London route were late in the month to December 8, compared to 21.4 per cent in the preceding 11 months.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa May said the fact trains were being delayed - rather than cancelled - meant South Central was not to blame.

She argued it was instead because the Government's decision to pull the plug on Railtrack - taken in October - had plunged the rail network into chaos.

She used the figures to make a fresh call for Transport Secretary Stephen Byers to be sacked.

Mrs May also alleged Ministers had tried to "bury" the worsening performance of the trains operated by South Central.

Her claim is based on the Government's announcement last December that it would cease the central publication of statistics on train operators' punctuality and reliability until March 2002.

The figures released by the Tories today have been compiled from information displayed by the train operating companies at stations.

Companies such as South Central are obliged, under the Passenger's Charter attached to their licences, to publish monthly performance statistics.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Connex South Eastern, which operates the Hastings to London route, have heavily rejected a pay offer in a referendum.

The union is seeking further talks and would have to hold another ballot before there was any threat of industrial action.

Cancellations on Britain's railways increased by 45 per cent last year, according to official figures released today.

Some 84,935 services were cancelled in the first nine months of 2001 - suggesting that the total number of scrapped trains over the whole year will have topped 110,000.

The greatest rise in cancellations was seen on the Gatwick Express, where the number of non-running trains went up almost sevenfold, from 333 in the first nine months of 2000 to 2,295 in the same period of 2001.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Don Foster, who compiled the figures from information contained in answers to parliamentary questions, said: "There's only one thing worse than a delayed train. It's a train that doesn't turn up at all."