Virgin was told to end the misery of its passengers

At the meeting in Swindon on Thursday, Virgin Trains managers, along with Network Rail (formerly Railtrack) and the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) were all heavily criticised.

The West country Virgin service has been inundated with complaints about cutting trains to Gloucester in order to save 10 minutes on its cross-country services.

The Rail Passengers' Committee, which has carried out a two-year investigation into West country services, said that was "not acceptable".

The biggest criticism, however, was of overcrowded trains. The rail operator, owned by millionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, has been told to sort things out and to end the misery its passengers suffer.

A lot of money has gone into the network in the west of England Chris Austen

Andrew Troll of Virgin Trains said: "We have suffered severe overcrowding, particularly last autumn with the adverse weather conditions.

"Since January and our timetable changes, we are seeing approximately 3% of our trains suffering some overcrowding at some point during their journey, so the situation is improving."

Network Rail was attacked for recent problems at Paddington station when engineering work overran beyond the Easter holiday period, leading to travel chaos for thousands of travellers.

John Curley of Network Rail said: "We are going to have to have a thoroughgoing inquiry with our contractors to understand where we went wrong and incorporate that in our future planning."

'Top priority'

The SRA was criticised for a lack of investment in the region's rail network, although this claim was rebutted by its spokesman.

Chris Austen from the SRA said: "A lot of money has gone into the network in the west of England.

"In Swindon, for example, you can see the work going on, on a �7m plan for a new platform and of course there's all the new trains for Virgin and for First Great Western.

"There's also the refurbishment of the Wessex Trains fleet, so a lot is happening down here already."

By contrast, First Great Western was praised for improving its services.

Chris Kinchin-Smith of First Great Western said: "Our top priority will always be punctuality and service quality and commitment to our customers."