First ScotRail has improved services since its takeover last year

The company took over the ScotRail franchise in October last year and pledged to improve punctuality.

Figures published by the Strategic Rail Authority showed it has reached 82%, compared to the UK average of 74%.

First ScotRail's Mary Dickson said the customer survey was "a promising start" for the franchise.

The statistics, published in the National Passenger Survey on Friday, showed overall customer satisfaction rose from 84% in spring 2004, to 86% a year later.

These are rewarding figures to be starting with Mary Dickson First ScotRail

Launching the service last October, First ScotRail said it would invest �7m to tackle reliability problems and passengers were on track to be provided with 6,000 extra seats during the rush hour.

It also said it would plough �40m into the service during the duration of its franchise.

The survey also showed customers rated First ScotRail highly with travel information it provided at stations and on trains.

Recruitment drive

First ScotRail achieved a 10-point improvement on last year in how it deals with delays.

Ms Dickson, the company's managing director, said it was committed to improving its services.

"Punctuality and reliability are continuing to improve and whilst there are still areas we need to work on, these are rewarding figures to be starting with," she said.

"We've turned around a declining performance trend, added additional services, recruited more than 150 customer service staff, introduced new ticket-purchasing facilities and extended our Flexipass service to 30 new stations."