Will our rail travel misery ever be over?

Perhaps they don't believe the reports, letters and pictures in the Bolton Evening News. They are obviously not very much in touch with their customers, as most commuters will not leave their offices in Manchester until 5pm, and will only arrive in Bolton after 5.30pm, leaving just 30 minutes to speak to them.

I commute to Manchester daily and, having put up with the frustration of driving from Bolton, I turned to public transport. At first I used the X25 Stagecoach bus service, which seemed an ideal solution. A weekly return ticket for around a fiver was ideal, but regrettably the service suffered from delays due to starting off from Blackburn.

The only public transport alternative was to use the train. The costs were far greater, a weekly ticket is currently £15.50, which for many office workers is a large proportion of their salary. The trains were regularly late or cancelled, often without announcement. It was unusual to get a seat, but there is no viable alternative public transport for anyone commuting to Manchester.

In May, 2000, tiring of the crowded conditions, I took some photographs showing the type of service that First North Western customers have to endure. These pictures, along with some taken in September 2000, have been used by the paper to illustrate the conditions I endure daily. Just in case anyone suspects that these pictures were taken on especially crowded trains, let me tell you that they were everyday services to or from Piccadilly Station.

Even the addition of new rolling stock, just on the Piccadilly line, would seem to have made little impact. The new trains suffered from incredible unreliability, which put extra strain on the remaining rolling stock. A train that has an entertainment system built into the seats, with "helpful" automated announcements, is of little use if it fails to arrive or is late by more than my total journey time.

Over the last three years I have seen some amazing incidents during my journeys to and from work. Hot days when, due to signal failures, I've been crammed into the space between carriages surrounded by students travelling to Salford and Manchester Universities, delayed by over an hour. On two occasions, many of these students were taking their final exams and they would have been refused access to their examination rooms, jobs that relied on final exam results were lost, years of study wasted.

On many occasions, single carriages have been sent to Salford Crescent instead of four units. On these occasions guards have refused to move these trains, causing long delays to all trains on the line.

The recent train drivers' strike has only added to the misery, with many services cancelled due to a work to rule, and a total loss of service on up to two days per week.

Basically, despite all the best efforts with extra rolling stock, it's not getting better. It's a shame that Bolton failed to get approval to build a Metrolink line. It would have made Bolton an even better place to live and work. Until that happens, we will be left with a third rate transport system and, since it's virtually a monopoly, there's no incentive for it to change. Anyone fancy starting a cheap express bus service to Manchester?

Phil Taylor

Bolton