A RAIL users group is starting a campaign to get extra trains put on between Worcester and Gloucester to enable commuters to arrive at work on time.

There are currently no trains running between the two cities that allow people to get to work at the start of a normal working day - 8am to 9am.

The two morning trains from Worcester are 6.49am arriving in Gloucester at 7.25am and at 9.05am arriving in Gloucester at 9.40am.

For anyone living in Gloucester and working in Worcester the trains leave at 7.15am, arriving in Worcester at 7.54, and at 9.38am arriving at 10.13am.

But the Cotswold Line Promotion Group (CLPG), a voluntary organisation aiming to safeguard and promote rail services, wants to see an hourly service introduced so that people can use the trains to get to work.

Vice chairman of the CLPG John Ellis said: "We have been concerned for a long time about the inadequacy of the service from Worcester to the south and it was made worse by the last timetable changes which removed trains between 6.49am and 9.02 from Worcester to Gloucester.

"The service is very unreliable because the trains run between Worcester and Weymouth or Brighton and they are very unreliable. If they are delayed in the northbound direction, they are quite frequently terminated at Cheltenham, Gloucester and Worcester Shrub Hill and they do not get to Malvern.

"It started us thinking that we need an hourly service. We currently have a two-hourly service and if you cannot rely on it, it is a disaster.We want a much more reliable service and more frequency.

"There is a need for it. What we want is a regular hourly service for Worcester, Ashchurch, Cheltenham and Gloucester."

The group has already discussed the proposals with train operators First Great Western and London Midland, which run services on that line.

"London Midland were sympathetic and we had good positive indications from them. But any changes have to be approved by the Department of Transport. We have produced a paper on it and have sent it to the DoT.

"We have discussed it with London Midland and First Great Western and, given approval from the DoT, we think they could run it at very little extra cost."