Passengers' patience runs out of steam

CHARLES TAYLOR, who founded the East Suffolk Travellers Association almost 30 years ago, was full of praise for John Prescott but said he had heard little that would bring cheer to the travellers in his part of East Anglia. His area includes the Felixstowe-to-Ipswich branch line, which was one of the least punctual in the country, and the line from Ipswich to Peterborough, which offered just six trains a day.

"If we are trying to get people out of their cars and on to the trains, you must make it easy to get to places like Peterborough. It is the biggest city in East Anglia and is a transport hub but we only get six trains a day. Coming the other way, from Peterborough to Ipswich, you can't get there until midday," he said yesterday.

Mr Taylor, who lives in Felixstowe, said he did not believe anything he heard at the summit would improve that. "It is about extra money and there was no sign of that. But we welcome the more positive approach." To solve the problems on the Felixstowe line required huge investment to upgrade it and provide new trains.

But Mr Taylor believed the Deputy Prime Minister was the best transport secretary in his 30 years of representing commuters, especially compared with the Tory ministers under Baroness Thatcher. "He is so positive and he does not hedge his bets."

John Saunders, of the Peterborough-to-Norwich rail users' group, said his concerns were exemplified by the small town of March, just inside the Cambridgeshire border.

He said there was a major access problem for disabled people at the station. "People with impaired mobility can only travel in one direction, because only one of the platforms is accessible."

Mr Saunders said he welcomed plans announced for new partnership schemes to solve these problems, but he added: "We needed to know the time-scale and the amount."