AS a frequent London commuter, I was glad to read, (Journal, October 3), that Mr Peter Luff, our MP, is calling for a more frequent, fast, and reliable rail service to London.

We need, however, to be reminded that, however good a rail service is provided to London from Evesham, this is not currently available to the disabled and the less able-bodied, since the ground level line crossing was removed.

This removal happened, according to Thames Trains management, suddenly on safety grounds and they seem, at the public meeting held about this, to have portrayed themselves as surprised victims. I would suggest, that with a little proactivity in their management, rather than pure reactivity, this appalling, and I suspect, given current legislation, illegal, situation for the disabled would never have arisen. At the same public meeting a somewhat temporally vague undertaking was given by Thames Trains managers, that the signal controlled ground level crossing would be installed. No fixed time was given for this to be accomplished, hardly space age technology one might think.

My reason for writing is not to bemoan the past, but, rather, to ask what is happening now. I suspect I am not alone in believing, perhaps cynically, that without public and sustained' pressure' from public figures like MPs, and public bodies like Town Councils, Thames Trains will lose any sense of urgency they claim to have, but might not, over the restoration of proper and safe disabled access to the London side of Evesham station. There seems to have been a marked and deafening silence from both MP and Town Council on this matter Why? Aren't the disabled worth bothering with?

I write, to, respectfully ask our MP and our Evesham Mayor to state through your columns that they regard this as an important and urgent issue, and, to say, what, if any, 'pressure' they are putting on the Thames Trains management.

I observe, in my frequent use of the station, a marked and, for the disabled and less able bodied, a somewhat cruel discrepancy between the glossy, spin-doctored and, as regards Evesham, entirely fictitious Thames Trains posters and pamphlets on their facilities for the disabled, and what is not actually there. Fiction to the point of being a credible entry for the Booker Prize.

I work for a large NHS Trust in London. If this Trust were to exhibit the same attitude to the disabled as is, at present, hopefully temporarily, existent at Evesham station, it would rightly be subject to sustained and public pressure from our MP, Local Council and other public bodies and figures. Why is this not happening in this case with Thames Trains? Our MP, Town Council and others need to keep this issue publicly 'on the boil' otherwise, those who were responsible for the purely reactive and precipitate withdrawal of these facilities for the disabled will hope, and in the event rightly, that this will all just go away and they need to do nothing.

REV DR EDWARD MORRIS, Shepherds Pool, Evesham.