I was most interested to read Keith Berry's letter (Your Letters, December 31) with regard to the two journeys he made to Birmingham that took more than two hours.

I can fully concur with his frustrations.

During the week of October 25, I had the misfortune to use the 'service', or to be more precise, complete absence of service, between Malvern Link and Birming-ham International.

Given that I would be based at an exhibition at the NEC most of the week, I made what turned out to be the serious error of judgement of presuming that it would be easier and quicker to stay with my 'in-laws' in Malvern overnight, rather than travelling up from Buckingham-shire every day.

This was a gross mistake on my part, as when I did finally travel home from Malvern, it took less time to drive the 100 miles, than it did to use the train service to cover the 30 miles or so from Malvern Link to Birmingham International.

On both Tuesday, October 26, and Wednesday, October 27, I arrived at the station to catch the 7.15am train but on both days it arrived late at Malvern Link and the journey to Birmingham, which should have taken in the order of 1 hours, on the Tuesday took 1 hours, while on the Wednesday, it took just over two hours to complete because of missing connections and delays.

On Tuesday, the return journey, which should have taken 1 hours, including waiting and changes, took over 2 hours, more than double the published journey time, while on Wednesday, it took almost exactly 3 hours!

Indeed, I arrived back at Malvern so late, I had to stay an unscheduled third night and got up at 4.30am next day to drive back to Buckinghamshire for an early morning meeting.

Even trying to make a complaint has proven difficult, in that for several days after these epic journeys, I tried to telephone the number published on the train for public relations but either got no answer or a string of recorded messages.

The level of service provided by Central Trains is truly appalling; its solution to the problem was to insultingly send me a stereotyped letter and vouchers for a paltry £4 "for my inconvenience".

Nigel Edward-Few, Chesham, Buckinghamshire.