I would like to start up a Rail User Group to lobby for a fair deal for passengers in the Malvern and Ledbury area.

Anybody interested in joining me to help form such a group can contact me on the address below.

Like Grace Hinitt, the student in last week's front page report (Malvern Gazette, November 14), I was a passenger on the 5.41pm 'service' from Hereford that eventually got passengers to Malvern at 8pm.

If there was a bus laid on "but many passengers were not aware of it", as Central Trains claim in your report, then the passengers were not the only ones who were in the dark. The station master at Hereford was also completely unaware of it - I know, because I spoke to him at some length about it that evening.

He announced to us at around 5.50pm that there would be a bus and at around 6.30pm had to announce that it had been cancelled. The reason given for that cancellation was the bus would have come from Worcester and it would have arrived too late to have been of any use.

That morning the 8.48am to Hereford was terminated at Great Malvern. We were quite surprised at that, as usually they let us get on the train, then terminate it at Ledbury where there are no toilets, waiting rooms or refreshments.

When I heard the train would not be going to Hereford, I asked for alternative transport, and a taxi was ordered for me and several other passengers.

Forty-five minutes later the next train was due and the taxi had still not arrived. When I asked why it was taking so long, I was told the taxi had to come all the way from either Kidderminster or Droitwich.

Eventually, three taxis arrived at 10.10am, 15 minutes after the due time of the 9.56 to Hereford. The taxi was from a company based in Kidderminster and had come all the way from its base.

We were advised by station staff to take the taxi as the 9.56 was still a long way off and therefore it was possible that it would also be terminated at Great Malvern or Ledbury.

We, the passengers, then had to direct the convoy of three taxis on a whistle-stop tour of stations of Herefordshire - even though at least two of the taxis were full and could have driven straight to Hereford, saving us at least half an hour. Still, when you're already an hour and a half late, what's another half hour between friends?

I depend on public transport as I don't have my own car. I have to work from home frequently because of difficulties with the trains. I'm very lucky I can do that; if my occupation was different and my employers less understanding and flexible, I would have lost my job long ago.

Properly-managed rural railways can become spines for economic development as well as providing an alternative to car and lorry use.

We need to demand a decent service, not only as a consumer right, but also to protect and sustain our rail links for future generations.

Jackie Carey, Jamaica Road, Malvern.