TRAIN passengers have accused rail bosses of turning carriages into "cattle wagons" on a busy route to Manchester.

Rush hour commuters say they are packed onto trains in sweltering conditions each day -- and sometimes forced to fit into just one carriage.

To make matters worse, there have been FIVE delayed trains on one rush hour service in the last nine days.

Passengers complain they are often forced to stand up for the whole journey with many jamming themselves in the section between carriages.

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Service operator First North Western usually lays on a two-carriage train on the popular route from Blackburn to Manchester, but on August 1 and 2 the popular 7.53am service, which passes through Bromley Cross, Hall 'i 'th Wood and Bolton, offered just one carriage.

Yesterday, when a BEN reporter and photographer investigated the route, the two-carriage train arrived on time. But passengers insisted the service had still not improved enough.

Stewart Black, aged 48, from Bromley Cross, said: "I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the miserable service on this line. The carriages are like cattle wagons and mobile saunas. When we had only one carriage, a number of passengers couldn't get on and many were stranded at Hall i' th' Wood.

"People will soon get fed up with it and get back in their cars. The situation has not got any better in the two years I've been travelling."

Mr Black said the trains were so full that conductors were often unable to squeeze past passengers to check tickets.

He said line route manager David Baxter's comments last month that fewer passengers were complaining did not tell the whole story.

"It is not that the service has improved. It's still miserably bad, but people have given up complaining because nothing gets done and we are fobbed off with the same lame excuses," he said.

Other passengers waiting at Bromley Cross station had similar gripes, despite the 7.53am train arriving on time.

Chris Leighton, aged 21, from Darwen, said: "I do not get the train that often, but when I do I see a few problems. When there was only one carriage, it was particularly bad. It makes the journey stressful."

Mr Baxter's mobile and office phone numbers are plastered on a large poster next to the timetable at Bromley Cross, inviting passengers to call him with any problems.

When the BEN called he was on holiday in Tenerife, but he said: "I do not know of any problems in the last week, but I will endeavour to sort them out when I return."

A First North Western spokesman said: "Many of our carriages are hit by vandalism, so we sometimes have to cancel or delay services.

"Sometimes it means we can only use one carriage on a certain route and we feel using one is better than none. We do ask customers to be patient during such times and do wholeheartedly apologise for anybody delayed by the service.

"Although there are problems, we feel we must put it into perspective. We now have a better grade of train on the route and the stations have been improved." Misery timetable Aug 1: One carriage -- four minutes late

Aug 2: One carriage -- five minutes late

Aug 3: Two carriages -- 12 minutes late

Aug 4: Two carriages -- on time

Aug 5: Two carriages -- on time

Aug 6: Four carriages -- nine mins late

Aug 7: Two carriages -- on time

Aug 8: Two carriages -- five mins late

Aug 9: Two carriages -- on time

(data provided by First North WesternTrains)