So, Ollie's not keen on Virgin Trains after his "lamentable" train journey some months ago.

Well let me tell you, I've had it with First Great Western, too.

My fuse has blown on the basis of cumulative frustration rather than any one bad experience. Since they took over the franchise on my routes into London and Oxford, I've earned a reputation as the man who's always late. I once spent so long crawling between Acton and Paddington that I had to cancel my entire evening, theatre and all, because I knew I wasn't going to make it.

Best of all was the night when thirty of us were dumped at Didcot Parkway by a rail replacement bus and told to wait for a connecting train which never arrived. In the small hours of Monday morning, we ended up begging the driver of an empty train to take us back to Reading on his way to the depot.

Unsurprisingly, I have an entire folder on my computer for the letters of complaint I've written to First Great Western. To their credit, I usually receive a reply which has, at least in part, been tailored to the particular issue I've raised. They sometimes dispute that the train was running late at all, or point out that I'm not entitled to compensation under the Passengers' Charter because it wasn't late enough! But, as a 'goodwill gesture', they usually enclose a few pounds worth of tokens to be redeemed on my next First Great Western journey which they hope will be a better experience.

It rarely is, but at least with tokens in hand I'm shielded from the full sting of the fare increases we've endured of late. Today, for a pretty run of the mill journey from Reading to London Paddington, I was charged a breathtaking £13 for an off-peak cheap day return! Granted, the service (as billed) is fast and frequent enough to make it a clear winner over road transport, but surely we should be pricing more competitively than that? Today I've been to a show, travelled across London by tube, had a two-course dinner and taken a taxi home (the late-night buses in Reading are appalling, too), and if £13 isn't quite the largest sum I've shelled out all day, it's certainly the least good value for money I've received...

... And here's why. Today's lunchtime 'fast' journey from Reading to Paddington was packed, it managed barely more than a crawl between Southall and its destination (some 12 miles), and it got me to London 20 minutes later than it should have done. Tonight's return journeys after 1900hrs were absolutely heaving, to the point where I let several trains leave without me in the hope of finding a seat on the next. The train I eventually caught, the 1948 to Cheltenham, had passengers standing throughout its woefully inadequate five-carriages, and was delayed before it even left. The usual old stuff.

But if I feel I've received bad value for money with my cheap day return, imagine the bitterness of commuters who've paid through the nose simply for the privilege of leaving London before 1900hrs. Those earlier services (which ticket restrictions [and the will to live] prevented me from taking) were unsurprisingly even more packed; and clearly a huge percentage of those on board had left work knowing full well they wouldn't be sitting down until they reached home.
Precisely what is First Great Western offering these people for their extra cash, other than the crudest possible form of transport since Third Class was abolished?

It was abolished, by the way, by the old Great Western Railway, arguably the most celebrated of the 'big four' railway companies and the one held to have been the most proud of its work. It’s ironic that First should seek to continue a brand which recollects such halcyon days of rail travel without displaying any of the characteristics itself. Brunel shall not rest until something is done - and neither shall the passengers.