REPORTER Dale Haslam continues his regular column about his daily train commute in and out of Bolton.

LAST week I wrote about an unpleasant experience I had with a TransPennine Express member of staff.

To briefly recap, I asked if I could board a train that was ready to depart, he accused me of swearing and then insulted me in an unprofessional way.

After making a complaint, I have since had a response from the firm to say it will investigate, but it not be able to tell me what they decide to do as it would contravene its own guidelines relating to staff privacy.

I can understand that to a certain extent, but it effectively means staff can behave badly and we, the people who pay their wages, never find out that the right thing happened as a result.

But anyway, let us move on, in the direction of Northern Rail. In August, The Bolton News revealed that the company had decided to introduce an evening peak period as of September 8.

I spent a lot of time asking for the views of Bolton student representatives, job-seekers, passenger campaigns, train firms, the Government and various rail firms and, when the article went online, I expected other publications to follow the story.

Sadly, no one did until much nearer the introduction date.

But one article that impressed me was written by The Guardian’s northern editor Helen Pidd.

She rightfully questions how Northern can justify such price increases while operating rickety trains and while announcing service cancellations on Twitter on any given morning.

She goes on to say that, while Northern is not about to replace old trains while coming to the end of its contract and, while it cannot be held responsible for all cancellations, it is still audacious for it to ask passengers to fork out more.

I could not agree more.

Such media attention is essential to ensure train firms know their every move is being noted.