Commuter hits out at '˜appalling' train service

Sophie Donnelly, 23, from Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead, catches the train from Hemel to London Euston five days a week.

But the delays and cancellations caused her to reach the end of her tether and she posted a complaint on London Midland’s Facebook page which generatedmore than 640 likes, 119 comments and 153 shares.

Ms Donnelly, who works as an editorial assistant for a publishing company in Warren Street, said: “I would say I am delayed two to three times a week, either going in or coming out of London.

“But London Midland are never accountable and I live close enough to London that this should not be an ongoing issue. It’s appalling.

“They say they will reply to your complaint within 20 working days, which is utterly pointless because by the time they get back to you, you have forgotten what you were complaining about.”

A spokesman for London Midland said: “We apologise to all our passengers who were caught up in the delays in and out of Euston last week.

“On Wednesday, a freight train broke down at Bushey. This blocked one of our four tracks for the whole day. To make matters worse there was a major signal failure at Kings Langley the next day.

“In fact, infrastructure issues account for around 70 per cent of the delays our passengers experience.”

Responding to ticket machine complaints, the spokesman said: “There are three ticket vending machines at the station and in the last month the worst performing machine has been available 97 per cent of the time. The other two have been working 99 per cent and 100 per cent of the time.”

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