A RAIL users group is calling for better passenger information and greater powers for local managers to deal with problems when they occur on services in Worcestershire.

The Cotswold Line Promotion Group wants to see helpline services at every station or a phone number people can call to get information about services when they have been disrupted.

It also wants local staff to be able to make decisions and organise replacement transport if a service is cancelled.

Group chairman Derek Potter said train operator First Great Western is good at organising buses and other rail services when there are planned disruptions but are caught off guard when it is unexpected.

"When something suddenly goes wrong, people are left to their own devices. We need someone local who is empowered to identify the problem, see what trains are affected and decide what they are going to do about it."

He said managers at the company's headquarters in Swindon were too far away to deal effectively with problems experienced by passengers on the Cotswold Line between Worcester and Oxford.

Last autumn there was major disruption on the line outside Worcester which caused trains to be stacked up back to Oxford. About 50 passengers on one train from Paddington to Malvern had to leave their train at about 9pm at Moreton-in-Marsh station, which was unmanned and where the waiting rooms and toilets were locked.

The promised bus did not arrive and about two hours later staff turned up to open the waiting room. A bus eventually arrived at 11.30pm - the same time as the next train.

Mr Potter said: "It needs a decent real time information system. At the moment you cannot believe the information you are being told. All you can believe your own eyes when a service turns up."

He said one of the problems was the signalling system which feeds information to the stations uses sensors on the platforms to detect trains going past, but they are also prone to detecting trees waving in the wind or animals.

A spokesman for First Great Western said improved passenger information was part of the company's station refurbishment scheme.

He said mobile teams were based in Oxford to take care of passengers affected by an unexpected incident and they could also call out managers from elsewhere, such as Cheltenham if they were nearer.

"We are not in an ivory tower in Swindon but we cannot have regional control centres at every stop. We don't have the resources," he said.