Give train contract elsewhere

I recently read an article where Andrew Davies, Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks, is quoted as saying: "The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to improving services. We are working hard to build on the significant performance improvements on the Cambrian line over recent months".

I also happened to pick up two articles on the BBC News Internet entitled "Network Rail Makes First Profit" (£745 million) and "Success New Problem for Network Rail".

Both these articles extol the virtues of how Britain's rail network has improved - that trains are more punctual than ever as a result to improvements in the standard of the track which reduces breakdowns; that train companies have also got better at drawing up slacker timetables which they can actually keep to.

I would like to ask these people what planet they are living on.

Countless commuters continue to suffer what can only be termed as an abysmal service on the Aberystwyth to Birmingham New Street line.

Network Rail were quoted in the local press as having spent 15 million on the line between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton in October. Supposedly this would improve the track and train service beyond Shrewsbury, yet Arriva's usual stunning performance has not altered one jot, in fact it is worse.

Over the last six months 75 per cent of the two trains alone that I travel on have been cancelled.

It is time someone resolved this and gave another train company the opportunity to do better.

Mrs Barbara Morris Shrewsbury