Passenger's rail protest (From Stroud News and Journal)

Passenger's rail protest

AN ANGRY rail passenger mounted a one-man protest against Virgin Trains on Monday.

Schoolteacher Nigel Pitell, from Westward Road, Ebley, vowed he was not to pay for any more tickets until the company apologised for the extensive delays he has to suffer every day.

On Monday morning Mr Pitell, who works at Sir Thomas Rich's School, was forced to cycle 11 miles from Stonehouse to Gloucester after his train was cancelled.

On his return journey, instead of buying a ticket he tried to present train staff with a letter expressing his dissatisfaction.

But he was blocked from the platform by staff who had been alerted to his plans. They told him his actions were illegal.

Mr Pitell said: "I wanted to mount a campaign of civil disobedience. "This is an absolutely ghastly service. "But I am not prepared to break the law."

In the past 24 days of travel Mr Pitell has endured more than six hours in delays as well as a number of cancellations.

Over the past month I have spent more than 200 minutes huddled in a concrete bunker waiting for the train, he said.

The final straw came on Thursday when a train that was supposed to get to Stonehouse at 5.30pm arrived at 7.07pm.

It would have been quicker to cycle, said the teacher who usually rides to the station and takes his bike on the train.

He wrote Virgin on November but has not had a reply. That is not satisfactory, he said. "There doesn't seem to be anyone to complain to. "The station is run by Wessex trains. You can't complain to them about Virgin because they say they're not accountable.

"What a brilliant scheme it was to sell off the railways." Mr Pitell added: "I have made my protest.

"I wanted to publicise this terrible service but I don't want a criminal record." Virgin Trains spokesman Jim Rowe admitted that the service has not been up to scratch and apologised for the problems Mr Pitell has faced.

He said: "Recently the service hasnt been at all satisfactory. "Normally if trains are cancelled, we will put on a coach service but recently we have had last minute cancellations and have not been able to arrange this.

"We can only apologise and work hard to make sure there are improvements."

Mr Rowe said Virgins customer relations department investigates complaints as quickly as possible.

He said it wrote to Mr Pitell on Monday to offer compensation, which will take the form of a discount on a season ticket.

For more Stroud and Stonehouse stories, see this week's SNJ.