Overcrowding, delays and old stock are still the blight of Connex South Central rail travellers, a new report says.

According to the Rail Passengers Council annual report released today, Connex South Central is one of the rail operators which has failed to improve the performance of its trains.

While the number of complaints about rail companies has dropped overall, the level of criticism aimed at Connex has risen.

Sir Alan Greengross, chairman of the London Region Passengers Committee, said there had been "recriminations, exhortations, promises and assurances" as well as billions of pounds spent.

Despite that, he said, "the situation on much of the railway is not getting any better but actually getting worse."

The report says Connex South Central passengers not only suffered the removal of more than 7,000 trains from the 1999/2000 timetable but were also faced with a 12 per cent increase in cancelled or delayed trains.

This was an increase from 11 in every 100 trains delayed or cancelled to 13. The firm also faced an increase in its fines for short trains from £266,000 to £421,000.

While train operations were responsible for 57 per cent of delays nationally, Railtrack was responsible for the rest, losing about 14 million minutes during the year.

Stewart Francis, chairman of the Rail Passengers Council, said the replacement of existing train company franchises held out "the best hope for years that the mistakes of the last round of franchising can be put behind us."

He said: "Our job is to ensure the lessons of the last few years have been well learned as we potentially could see new 20-year franchises that must bring benefits to all passengers."

David Ewart, media relations manager for Connex, said: "We do accept that performance has gone down but we are confronted with a 25 per cent increase in passenger demand, with ageing trains dated from the Sixties running on infrastructure dating from Victorian times.

"Our proposals for the replacement South Central franchise, which is currently being considered, are for a £1.45 billion investment programme in new trains and infrastructure improvement in partnership with Railtrack to enable us to improve service quality and increase capacity."

He said Connex had ordered 240 new sliding-door coaches to replace slam-door models on South coast routes.

If the franchise bid is successful the company says it will replace all its slam-door coaches by 2002.