IT WAS a week, like every week, when my journey to work was a disgrace.

On the Tuesday, I arrived at Bolton station at 7.30am in plenty of time to catch the 7.39 Manchester Airport Train. It was delayed by 30 minutes. When it arrived it was full and people were standing in every carriage. Only about a third of the people on the station managed to get on the train; everyone else, myself included, had to wait as there was no room. I was unable to get on the next train, which was also late.

I managed to catch the next train and arrived at Manchester Oxford Road at 8.55am -- nearly an hour late.

The next morning and the morning after, it was the same and I was late for work.

On every journey that week, the trains were so full that people were unable to get on, and those that did get on were stuffed into the carriages like sardines. The service is a disgrace and yet the staff are asking for a pay rise. In my eyes, they have no chance. A pay rise would mean an increase in fares, and I refuse to pay any more for this disgusting insult of a service.

I have heard excuses like "there is insufficient rolling stock" -- this is rubbish. It is simply management cutting costs. If you have the staff to place five people on the entrance to platform 14 at Piccadilly, and four at the exit to Oxford Road, then you certainly have the resources available to add on extra carriages. It's not hard, it's easy -- add more carriages to the trains and stop making excuses.

Another excuse I heard is that the three-carriage train was parked behind the two-carriage train at Blackpool North. Well, that is just incredible incompetence. Now why not add a carriage to both? Problem solved.

I will now be writing on a weekly basis to the rail company, detailing my misery and copying my email to everyone I can think of, so that I can make their lives nearly as miserable as mine.

Danny Langley

Great Moor Street

Bolton