A busy Croydon commuter train was late more than 80 per cent of the time on journeys last autumn, new figures show.

The Southern-operated 8.14 from East Croydon failed to arrive into Victoria on time 83 per cent of the time between October and December, according to analysis carried out by Labour's mayoral campaign team.

This week: Southern told to 'shape up or ship out' in showdown with with MPs over rail franchise

Labour candidate Sadiq Khan has joined other MPs in calling for Southern to be stripped of the franchise in the face of dwindling customer satisfaction and performance.

But today Southern insisted that, according industry measures, the 8.14 - which no longer runs following a December schedule change - was more punctual than the findings suggest.

Mr Khan said: "It’s simply not acceptable that people commuting from Croydon into London face their train being late more than 80 per cent of the time.

"Thousands of London's train users are facing delays, cancellations and nightmare journeys coming into work day after day. Commuters in places like Croydon are running out of patience and the Government must now give control of all commuter rail services to Transport for London at the earliest possible date the contracts allow.

"The repeatedly poor service is a daily headache for thousands of Londoners, and also bad for London’s economy."

The Labour findings, gathered using Network Rail data, were released just days after Southern bosses were grilled on performance by a group of MPs including Gavin Barwell and Chris Philp.

At a meeting on Monday convened by rail minister Claire Perry, the company committed to employing more drivers and upgrading carriages to prevent breakdowns, after being told by ministers to “shape up or ship out".

But Croydon South MP Chris Philp said he was "still unconvinced that their performance improvement plan is working".

A Southern spokesman yesterday said the industry considered any train arriving within five minutes of its scheduled as being "on time" - a measure known as the public performance measure (PPM).

The spokesman said: "Using PPM as the industry measure, the 8.14 East Croydon to London Victoria arrived on time 65.8 per cent of the time between October and December last year. We know this is not good enough and we apologise to our passengers for the poor performance they are experiencing currently.

He added that improvement works at London Bridge had led to "much bigger delays than before" on the network, but that work was being done with Network Rail to increase punctuality.

UPDATE 21/01/2015

Since this story was published, Southern has contacted the Croydon Guardian to provide more PPM figures.

There were actually two 8.14 services from East Croydon to Victoria between October and December last year, the company said.

Referring to the punctuality of both services, a Southern spokesman said: "Using PPM as the industry measure, the 08.14 East Croydon to London Victoria arrived on time 72.1 per cent of the time between October and December last year."

Did you take the 8.14? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6388 or email daniel.omahony@newsquest.co.uk