In theory train travel is the transport of the future. It's green, it's surprisingly quick and it keeps thousands of cars off the road. In practice it's a hideous experience that no-one in their right mind would want to be part of their future.

Unreliable services, dirty trains, laughably overpriced tickets, and sandwiches that cost more than most meals in a restaurant all add up to a miserable experience.

In fact, the latest figures reveal that 55% of people think tickets are too expensive given the level of service offered.

But it's not all bad news.

The statistics, from the transport watchdog found a few positive signs. 83% of passengers were satisfied with their journey, and a similar number were happy with the reliability of the service.

The services with the highest scores for satisfaction were Wrexham & Shropshire, Grand Central, Heathrow Express, Chiltern Railways, Merseyrail and Scot Rail. Those with the lowest scores included First Capital Connect and National Express East Anglia.

Unfortunately, this doesn't really help most people, after-all there are very few journeys where you can shop around for the best rail company, you're stuck with whoever operates the route.

However, you can make sure you aren't overpaying for the experience. We blogged recently on the tricks and techniques for paying less for your train fare. So try a few tricks to make sure you're paying as little as possible. Then, even if you're parked in the middle of the countryside for hours because of the wrong kind of drizzle, you can comfort yourself that you have plenty of cash in your pocket to blow on gold-encrusted sandwiches to keep you going.