What a nightmare getting to and from London yesterday. I chose to go from Didcot Parkway because I would be returning late at night and trains stopping at Radley are thin on the ground at that time. Miss one and you?re stuck for an hour.

As I walked from the station car park at Didcot to the station itself, I saw one HST (High Speed Train) drawn up in Platform 3. At first I thought it was a Hereford train, but then I saw its tail lights and realized it was a London train. Bad sign, I thought. No sooner had I thought that than another London-bound HST came into Platform 4. Nothing was going through Platforms 1 and 2, which are on the fast lines. Very bad sign!

Bought my ticket and went up onto Platform 2. The HST in Platform 3 had left by that time and the one in Platform 4 was pulling out. I decided to hang on for the 10:48, the train I had intended to catch. Just before the train arrived (pretty much on time), there was an announcement to the effect that it would be coming in on Platform 4, so we all rushed down the stairs, under the tracks and up onto Platform 4.

The train dropped a bit of time, but we set off and trundled up the Relief all the way to Reading, slowing here and there, stopping once or twice. The Train Manager told us the fast lines were closed, but no sooner had he said this than a train overtook us on the Up Main and another went through on the Down Main. Absolutely maddening! We were overtaken by several trains before we got to Reading.

Then we were told that the slow running was due to a train that had broken down in Reading station and we were in a queue of trains waiting for a platform.

We sat in a remote platform in Reading for about 5 minutes. An Adelante came in on the fast London platform as we sat there and then left before us.

Thereafter we trundled really slowly up the Relief almost all the way to Paddington, while other trains shot past us on the Up Main. Lousy regulation, if you ask me. We arrived some 54 minutes late on a 45 minute journey. Needless to say we were just short of the one hour late that triggers the first level of compensation.

Coming back, we crawled down the Relief from Reading and arrive about 10 minutes down at Didcot - essential engineering works, allegedly, caused this particular delay.

I think the train operators should prominently post a telephone number that passengers - oh, sorry, ?customers? - can call and shout at while the train is in the process of being late.

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