THE long suffering rail passengers of East Lancashire must think they are living on a different planet from that occupied by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the officials of North Western Trains.

The company has said that services in the area have been restored to "acceptable levels" and Mr Prescott has welcomed the announcement, saying it was good news for passengers who had suffered for too long from poor levels of service.

Acceptable levels?

Good news?

Try telling that to the commuters who travel, or attempt to travel, on the 7.42am Bolton to Blackburn train.

It has been cancelled on five of the last seven working days.

There have also been delays and cancellations on the Preston to Colne line.

The amazement which greeted the North Western Trains statement is understandable.

If it calls five cancellations out of seven 'acceptable', what is considered to be a poor service? Presumably one which ceases to run at all.

John Prescott's team should have done its homework before allowing him to accept the company's assurances that everything in the garden was rosy.

His statement makes the government look stupid, unless there is a calculated government whitewash here.

North Western Trains' customers have every right to expect a service which gets them to work on time fairly regularly.

We all accept that there will be occasional unavoidable delays. That can happen whatever form of commuter transport we choose -- buses ,cars, cycles.

But five cancellations out of seven at a time of day when people are trying to get to their places of work is just not on.

It is inefficiency at its worst.

Passengers have a right to expect an explanation and a promise of swift improvement from North Western Trains.

Instead they are insulted by the company's "acceptable levels" statement.

So it comes as no surprise to learn that travellers who use the line as regularly as cancellations permit are hoping to form a pressure group.

Certainly pressure needs to be applied, not only on the train company but on John Prescott and his team who seem to have little idea of what frustrations and hardships are thrust upon the travelling public of the North West.

In the lead-up to rail privatisation we were promised a wonderful service. Those words now have a distinctly hollow ring.

If North Western Trains sees its levels as acceptable, those levels must be appallingly low.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.