THE much-vaunted timetable changes, introduced this week in a bid to modernise the rain service, seem to have come off the rails, at least according to some of our readers.

As shown in our newspaper today, travellers using West Midland Trains services on the line linking Worcester with Birmingham are convinced that they have drawn the short straw compared to travellers elsewhere on the network.

In some cases the trains that they rely on actually have actually been reduced in size.

This has led, not unnaturally, to distressing scenes of overcrowding.

This is something that the rail operating company needs to address, and quickly. It cannot simply say, as it has this week, that new rolling stock will be introduced in 2021.

If the overcrowding carries on, people will find themselves more and more abandoning rail as a viable mode of transport, and taking to the roads, surely the last thing policy-makers want.

People will use public transport when it is reliable, efficient and reasonably comfortable, and if it's not, they won't.