WEARY commuters would be excused for looking at today’s story that three of our local services are amongst the most crowded in the country and thinking: Here we go again.

That working people travelling into the capital are paying thousands of pounds for the privilege of standing for the whole of their journey is, sadly, nothing new.

Also not new for those who face the strain of taking the train is the yearly increases and the regular delays caused by infrastructure failures. And neither are the promises of a better tomorrow.

For many years, when First Great Western and other train companies are challenged about the ticket price increases and the overcrowded trains, the public are told investment is needed and then improvements will come.

Well, here we are still standing on the platform at Optimism Central and the Promises Express still hasn’t chugged into sight.

Quite frankly our commuters are getting a raw deal. Name another industry that could get away with not providing what is inherently promised in the admission price, delays, increased costs, and yet its customer base rises.

That, unfortunately, is the problem for passengers because by trooping helplessly through the ticket barrier every morning there is no economic hit on the train companies to actually recognise they need to up their service now.

They charge people thousands of pounds a year yet it appears there have been no tangible improvements.

Why, First Great Western, don’t you actually give these poor souls some better service next year as you dip your hands even deeper into their pockets?

The question has to be: Do you actually care about your passengers?

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