Twyford

For the last two days Monday 8/1/07 & Tuesday 9/1/07 the 1642 train from Langley to Twyford has been cancelled.

You may recall that in December against our combined complaints we, the customers, had a new time table forced on us by FGW with promises of more 'transforming travel' and the elimination of late, cancelled and over crowded trains to and from Twyford.

The immediate practical difference it made to me is that I have about half the number of available trains to and from Twyford and Langley during the morning and afternoon peak periods. Meaning that these arbitrary cancellations are even more disruptive.

Anyway both yesterday and today I checked on your website before leaving to catch the train at Langley using your "Live Departures and Arrivals. Uses latest train information provided by National Rail Enquiries, showing the latest arrival and departure times for all trains from your selected station." to make sure that the trains I intended to catch had left Paddington. On both days they did, all be it late, but hey it is FGW.

Anyway just minutes before each was due to arrive an automated announcement came on at Langley to say they had been cancelled. Strangely on both days trains looking just like the one I would have caught passed through platform three at Langley heading towards Reading but without stopping. On both days when the 1712 trains arrived they were overcrowded and late by the time they got to Twyford. It was only last month I met with Richard Rowland at Twyford who assured me that this time I could believe the FGW promises about actually improving their abysmal standards. Since then the only change has been yet another price rise.

Can you tell me please. Did the trains actually run but just not bothering to stop at Langley and pick up incidentals like passengers? Or were the trains actually cancelled and the information about them leaving Paddington false?

More promises from FGW: Extra trains to ease overcrowding

Rail operator First Great Western is to put on extra early morning services in response to complaints of overcrowding and train cancellations.

The move follows the introduction of a widely-criticised new timetable.

More trains will be run early on the Oxford to Paddington line and capacity will be increased for Twyford and Maidenhead customers.

There will be more than 100 extra seats for customers travelling between Frome, West Wiltshire, Bath and Bristol.

'Rural connections'

Alison Forster, managing director of First Great Western (FGW), said: "We recognise that some elements of the timetable have not met all our customers' needs.

"We apologise to those customers who have experienced crowding and train cancellations on some key services."

Travellers in rural areas will benefit from better-timed connections on some branch lines to ensure connections with main line services.

Ms Forster promised the company would continue to review the timetable introduced in December.

She said FGW would consider making further changes in particular for customers using Bedwyn or Newbury to Reading services, over the next few months.

A backlog of maintenance work, which had been causing capacity problems in the Bristol and Bath area would be addressed by "pulling out all the stops" and recruiting additional maintenance engineers.

"I'm confident that this will improve the reliability of our services and therefore seating capacity over the next couple of weeks," she said.

The additional services will start on 15 January.

BBC News