Commuters who are tired of hearing about ‘leaves on the line’ will be angered at the findings of a new survey into working life in different industries.

Almost half of all workers in the transport industry feel under pressure to ‘cut corners’ – a higher proportion than in any other sector.

The survey, conducted by market research company BMRB, also found that transport workers were more likely to complain about stress, take days off sick and have a poor relationship with their boss.

Richard Rosser, general secretary of transport union the TSSA, was not surprised by the results: “Many of our members in rail are in the frontline of passenger dissatisfaction at overcrowding and poor service on our trains,” he said.

Saul Philpot, operations director at rail recruiter Shorterm Rail, said that workers often had extremely high standards to meet and were better trained than ever.

“If there’s a safety breach it’s big news, and workers are always conscious of that, but they would never deliberately cut corners,” he said.