"SORRY this card arrived late, this was due to overrunning engineering works on this pen."

This was just one of the many farewell messages from Brentwood's frustrated, angry and out-of-pocket commuters as they signed off to the outgoing National Express East Anglia (NXEA), shown to be the worst rail operator in the UK in a recent survey.

Just 77 per cent of those questioned in a survey by rail watchdog Passenger Focus thought that NXEA services were satisfactory or good.

The news that it ranked bottom, though, came as little surprise to so many customers, who last week took their last NXEA journeys into the capital from Shenfield, Brentwood, Billericay and Ingatestone, after it lost its franchise.

The newly-named Greater Anglia, operated by Dutch firm Abellio, took over on Sunday.

Commuters were pretty speedy to make their remarks in our special Gazette leaving card, bidding a fond, final and emotional farewell to the operator.

Another grumbling commuter scribbled in the Gazette's card: "Now you're leaving, I guess you won't be going national and you never were that good at the express bit."

Another passenger preparing for the daily grind at Shenfield on Monday was Lloyd Fernandes, 29, who lives just off Southend Road in Billericay and wrote: "So long and good riddance. Thanks for all the 'wonderful' memories."

New operator Abellio has vowed to improve customer satisfaction, as a priority. Its Merseyrail franchise was found to be third best in the UK, with 93 per cent customer satisfaction.

Abellio managing director Rudd Haket said: "I am absolutely convinced that we will increase customer satisfaction and that is what we will be focusing on.

"I had been working towards Sunday for two years and am really looking forward to getting out in the field and will be spending much of my day out on the trains and talking to customers.

"I have just moved my wife and three daughters down to Flitch Green and so, yes, you could say that I am hoping that we win a longer franchise after our 29 months is up.

"It will also mean that I will be travelling on the Greater Anglia line everyday so I will want the service to be as reliable and good as anyone else."

He added: "The most important thing to me is customer satisfaction and my role will mainly be helping our staff to make sure that this is the case and talk to the customers myself.

"Our first step will be making sure that the running of the lines goes through a smooth transaction. We had an additional 68 members of staff starting on Sunday and will be looking at the successful parts of our system in Merseyrail.

"There is nothing that we can do about introducing more trains but I am hoping that we can work together with MPs, councillors and other agencies to centralise the needs of our customers throughout the Greater Anglia region. It's about being part of the community and finding what they want the service to be."

The much-maligned National Express East Anglia was "disappointed" with its rating as it bade farewell to its customers at the end of its eight-year reign.

Managing director Andrew Chivers said: "We're obviously disappointed with the overall customer satisfaction rating for autumn 2011, which has declined slightly on the previous survey.

"We have been determined to improve customer satisfaction rates in our eight years running this railway. And while they are higher than when we started, they have not increased by as much as we had hoped.

"We're encouraged by some of the improvement the survey reports in areas such as availability and comfort of seating on trains.

"These results reflect the recent completion of our £185 million investment programme, including a new fleet of trains, 11,000 extra seats at peak times for London Liverpool Street services, and improved stations at Brentwood, Colchester, Ipswich and Marks Tey."

As for our leaving card to National Express East Anglia, it is in the post. Let's hope there are no delays in it reaching them.