Accidents and network maintenance has caused passengers to stay away

From Monday, two passengers can buy return tickets to London from any Midland Mainline station for �10 each. The offer runs until 25 March.

"We asked passengers and they wanted something simple that they could understand," said Midland Mainline marketing director, Malcolm Brown.

"So we introduced the �10 fare - no convoluted percentage off, just a straight forward �10 return to London."

Half price fares

There is also an offer for business travellers who can exchange their used peak-time tickets for two free first class weekend returns to London.

"People will come back but we've got to work hard to win their confidence," added Mr Brown.

"We've got to run a reliable service, offer some keenly priced fares and we've got to communicate that the service is actually back to normal."

From next Monday, Virgin Trains will be bringing in 50% reductions across the board for a month.

A first class ticket from London to Manchester will fall from �230 to �115 and a London-Glasgow Saver will halve to �38.50.

South West Trains

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson believes radical measures are needed.

"Now is the time to recover passengers lost in the last three months and kick-start travel by train," he said.

Next into action will be South West Trains, which is offering up to four half-price off-peak tickets on its routes for a month from 14 February.

They will be available in exchange for vouchers which will be printed in newspapers, delivered to homes or available to be downloaded from the internet.

Other big operators, such as GNER and First Great Western, will unveil their offers in the next few weeks, when they are confident services are back to normal.

Passengers wary

However, Connex - which runs services on busy routes in the South - said it did not intend to follow suit.

Virgin believes radical measures are needed.

But many passengers remain unimpressed by the offers.

"It might entice people to get back on the trains, but I think a lot of people have been disheartened," said Midland Mainline customer Linda Poacher.

"It is no good making all these offers and promises if they can't live up to it."

Passenger Peter Bunkley commented: "For regular travellers, you are stuck with the service you've got to a certain extent. Offering these tickets at the weekend is pointless because the last thing I want to do is sit on a train at weekends as well."

There is no doubt that the rail industry faces an uphill struggle to return to pre-Hatfield levels.

Air travel spin-off

The Association of Train Operating Companies says passenger revenue in the last three months of 2000 was down 20% on the 1999 figure.

Some companies were particularly badly hit - Virgin said its income fell 40% after Hatfield.

However, the mass desertion of the rail network brought benefits for other businesses.

The British Airports Authority said the number of people taking domestic flights rose by 14% in December.

British Airways reported a 40% jump in bookings to some cities.

It is estimated that 85% of the UK's trains are now running to a normal timetable. But research suggests it could be five years before passenger numbers are back to their usual levels.

Price cuts might be a welcome initiative but the train companies are under pressure to show that other operational problems exposed in recent weeks are behind them.