Hundreds of services are to be lost

More than 500 trains a week are to be scrapped as part of an ongoing crusade to cut congestion.

The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), the government body overseeing the railways, said the move would bring about faster times and improve punctuality.

The SRA announced in January it would be axing 100 services a day from May and the latest cuts - in force from September - will affect South West Trains, Virgin Cross Country, Wales and Borders and Central Trains.

But rail passenger groups have criticised the announcement saying there is no "long-term vision" behind it.

The SRA said it was cutting another 81 trains each weekday, with an extra 120 trains being scrapped on Saturdays.

THE SRA SAYS Performance will improve in the congested Birmingham area Trains will become more punctual There will be more seats available on the most overcrowded Cross Country services

However, the authority said there would be 13 new services and stressed the changes would mean faster journey times, as well as cutting delays.

Nick Newton, the SRA's managing director of operations, said: "The railway has got to get better before it gets bigger.

"Reliability and performance have been the driving factors in these timetable changes.

"Passengers will see a difference in punctuality and less congestion on the routes."

Severe congestion

Stewart Francis, chairman of the Rail Passengers Council, said he understood why the decisions were being made.

But, he added: "The total absence of targets for improved performance is astonishing.

"We need to know when, and by how much, performance is going to improve for the majority of passengers in Great Britain because currently, a number of passengers are being disadvantaged.

"At the moment, passengers are not clear what benefits these changes will bring and there is no apparent long-term vision to inspire them."

Earlier in the month, the SRA outlined 104 services a day, out of 17,000, would be cut from May.

Those cuts affected services between Oxford and Bristol on First Great Western and Thames, with 18 trains withdrawn and no more direct links between the two cities.

Central Trains is cutting 32 train services on the Crewe to Manchester Airport part of the Manchester Airport to East Midlands route.

Across the country there are now 20% more trains than there were at privatisation, and many routes have become severely congested.