ANYONE who uses the trains that pass through Worcester's two stations knows that West Midlands Railway is finding it hard to operate the service that it should be providing.

When services are not delayed, which happens far too often anyway, they can be horrendously overcrowded as commuters vividly testify on page 5 of today's Worcester News.

It is particularly disturbing to learn that the company has appeared not to have made the improvements that it had pledged two of our county's MPs to implement.

Rush-hour services are the hardest hit, but there are also trains at other times of the day that become dangerously crowded.

New rolling stock was needed, and has been promised, but has not appeared.

For years, we have been told by successive governments that we need to get out of our cars and onto public transport, for the good of the planet and ourselves.

But faced with West Midlands' overcrowding and reliability problems, is it any wonder that people might prefer the comfort of their own cars?