Great Western Coffee Shop

We^re compiling dossiers of evidence on the UK^s train companies to take your concerns to the companies ^ and a number of MPs are now on-board to help.

We have joined forces with MPs from across the UK to ask people to share their train tales. We want train companies to listen to their passengers and act on their complaints.

Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director said:

'Commuters have been let down time and again by poor train services, yet despite the spiralling cost of tickets many are putting up with it and not complaining. We want to hear from passengers travelling in and out of London, and will make it easy for people to go on the record with their views.'

We've handed your feedback over to the train companies

Nearly 1,000 of your comments have been sorted and packed up into dossiers for each of the train companies.

Your comments not only highlight the things you think train companies are getting wrong, they also share the things you think they're getting right. Comments cover everything from punctuality to cleanliness, and they're now in the hands of the train operators.

The 'loads of empty First Class seats' and wifi are of course in the process of being remedied.

Next year: where have all the First Class seats gone, and why does the wifi not work...

Which? ^ the consumer organisation ^ carried out the exhaustive survey and issued a dossier of findings and recommendations to the train companies. The list presented to First Great Western, languishing in the bottom five train companies for service standards, will have been longer than most. Many passengers who travel regularly with First ^ and indeed several other train operators ^ will have become so used to a second rate service they will have stopped complaining. Yet a survey like this brings home just how far short of what ought to be the norm our rail service has fallen.

If Which? had extended its questioning beyond the train journey, to the whole railway experience, it would almost certainly have heard even more complaints. With one or two honourable exceptions, stations are not pleasant places to spend any length of time. And regular delays to journeys mean passengers often do end up spending longer than they would wish, using drab, broken and dirty facilities ^ from station lavatories to sub-standard coffee shops and waiting rooms.

It all points to the crying need for a railway system, in the South West and elsewhere, that is fit for the 21st century. Travellers who go abroad and experience their railways invariably enjoy a better experience. It shows it can be done. Britain may have invented the railways and the Westcountry still boasts some of the most dramatic and spectacular lines that are, in themselves, things of beauty and should be a joy to travel upon. So often, however, thanks to shoddy service standards and outdated rolling stock, they are anything but.

It is fair to say that, in some instances, things have improved on the very worst of the bad old days when British Rail was in charge of a crumbling nationalised service. But we should not and will not be fobbed off with a second rate service, just because it has marginally improved on what we once endured. Our rail links are too important for that. They must be fit for purpose.