Angry rail passengers are striving to bring train company chiefs onto the public platform to explain an alleged winter of discontent on the railways.

Ingatestone Rail Users' Association claims services are 'disastrous' and has invited managers from First Great Eastern and Anglia Railways to face frustrated commuters at a meeting next month.

Association chairman Richard Enever has cited a catalogue of complaints with services and expressed fears that non-driving residents are becoming increasingly stranded.

He is calling for more Ingatestone residents to join the committee in the fight to protect train and bus services.

He said: 'The services to and from Ingatestone have been disastrous since September. We have suffered signal failures, breakdowns, the lot. All this is having an effect on people's employment.'

But Mr Enever, of The Furlongs, Ingatestone, said: 'I am still very worried about the trains. If we are not careful services will be cut. But if the train companies make one single cut to our services, as proposed by the Strategic Rail Authority on other lines, we will petition the public and consult the authority.'

Mr Enever and around 600 fellow commuters are currently served by a 20-25 minute peak London service and an hourly off-peak service.

But the Ingatestone rail passengers are calling for peak time trains at 20 minute intervals and an off peak service every half hour.

He said : 'Now the village has lost its evening buses, the only form of public transport at night will be the train. We want improvements day and night.'

A spokesman for First Great Eastern said: 'Our punctuality has never been higher. However in the last two months there have been a number of incidents which have included suicide attempts, freight and other train operators' train failures.

A spokesman for Anglia Railways said: 'We provide very few services to Ingatestone and our services have generally been operating reliably. Performance has not been good on the main line because we are still suffering problems relating to the infrastructure which is the responsibility of Network Rail. We are trying to work positively with them.'

The Ingatestone Rail Users' Association open public annual meeting at the United Reformed Church Hall, Ingatestone, on Tuesday, February 11 at 8pm will allow passengers to quiz train company bosses about their proposals for services.

Published Friday, January 24, 2003

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