THE boss of a rail lobby group says he is surprised to see an operator nominated for a top award.

Greater Anglia has been short-listed for the rail operator of the year gong at the Rail Business Awards after investing £40million in customer service improvements across its previous franchise deal on the Greater Eastern Mainline as well as making improvement to performance and reliability of refurbished trains.

The firm plans to replace all the trains in their fleet in the lead up to 2020 but chairman of the Essex Rail Users Federation Derek Monnery said some were still not up to scratch at the moment.

He said: "The trouble is only about one quarter of the trains have been refurbished and the rest quite frankly are pretty awful - probably worse than other trains going into London at the moment.

"I don't know what criteria are being used to judge it but it does seem a little surprising.

"Just this week I have been on six or seven different trains, and the inter city ones are fine but suburban ones are in a poor state.

"Reliability of the infrastructure also remains a bit iffy."

Mr Monnery added the vast majority of Greater Anglia staff he had encountered were well trained, friendly and helpful.

Greater Anglia has also been nominated for the technical innovation award for the trial of their virtual ticket office technology.

Managing director Jamie Burles said: "I'm pleased to see the sustained focused on investment into the region’s train service and the commitment, and achievements, of our employees in raising service standards has been recognised.

"We know we have much more to do and we are committed to consistently improving train services for the customers and communities we serve."