While railway stations have improved for larger towns, commuters living in smaller communities are getting a raw deal, the National Audit Office says.

A report by the public spending watchdog says things have improved at big stations and passenger information has got better. But at many small and medium sized stations the situation is poor.

According to the report, there is a gap between rising passenger expectations, and what the government and the industry can afford and justify as value for money. There are also organisational barriers standing in the way of potential improvements.

The 95 largest stations enjoy the highest levels of passenger satisfaction. These are fully staffed, have a range of facilities and carry more than half of all rail passengers each year. Passengers are consistently less satisfied, however, with the more than 2,000 medium-sized and small stations that are unstaffed or staffed for only part of the day and that have few facilities. Even where satisfaction with train punctuality and reliability has itself been low, passengers have been even less satisfied with stations.

High levels of vandalism and graffiti plus lack of disabled access were among the main items of concern. Unstaffed stations monitored mainly by CCTV came in for the most criticism.

Dissatisfaction with the station environment and station upkeep and repair can be attributed, in part, to most stations being over 100 years old. But, there are also shortcomings in maintenance and repair arrangements and the rail industry has been slow to respond to the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, which required reasonable provision to have been made at stations by October 2004 for disabled people to travel. More than half of Britain’s stations are not fully accessible to disabled people.

The report says the industry needs to attract more funding and support from the private sector to meet passenger expectations.