JUST GIVE US MORE TRAINS!

It's a shame, in some ways, that Brigg railway station did not finish in this week's list of the 10 worst stations in Britain.
For Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the 10 worst, which will now benefit from a new £50-million fund to do them up.
Had Brigg been on the list of shame, His Lordship - and others in Government - would have been red-faced. Because, of course, they wouldn't have been able to get a train to Brigg midweek!
For Brigg's biggest wasted asset - the town's railway station - only "enjoys" a passenger train service on a Saturday, and then only three one-unit visits in each direction, giving a choice of a few hours in Grimsby/Cleethorpes or an even briefer visit to Sheffield.
It's good that cash is going into improving some of the big stations like Crewe, Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Central, and that there are plans to invest lots more in smaller stations.
But what use is a station (like ours) if no trains stop there six days of the week?
Brigg station, which could once boost a roof, booking office, station master and staff, was on the original mainline from Manchester to Grimsby. Over the years the buildings and platform 'furniture' have been demolished (only the footbridge remains).
But when millions were spent recently upgrading the line (for freight purposes) many rail campaigners, and Brigg councillors, thought that offered a great opportunity to re-introduce a meaningful passenger service.
Whether or not you support nationalisation of the railways in 1948, it has to be admitted that, under British Rail(ways) there was at least a cohesive approach. One organisation looked after the track and station buildings, and operated the trains.
Deregulation has brought some benefits to passengers, in terms of comfort and pricing, but has produced problems like Brigg suffers today. For how could you justify investing money in improving a station visited by only six trains a week?
Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope for Brigg. If just a glimmer. It appears that if enough people pressurise Network Rail, they might look at investment.
Robin Gisby, operations and customer service director, said: "Stations are the railways' shop-front and they have been ignored for too long. With the punctuality of the railways now running at record levels and our major programme to boost capacity and provide more seats on trains underway, we can now look at other priorities and stations and are at the top of the list. Much is planned in this area over the coming years and we must invest wisely. We shouldn't try and second guess passengers but ask them what they want from stations and what's important to them. We need to listen to passengers and use their views on stations to guide our decisions."
In what it describes as a 'pioneering move', Network Rail is launching the first ever nationwide stations research project, asking passengers what is important to them at their local station, where they would like to see investment and what are their priorities.
The research project will kick off later this month, last for up to three months and involve on-line surveys, telephone surveys and focus groups to really get into the detail of what passengers rate as the most important things to have at stations. The results from the survey, along with the station champions report expected from the Department for Transport shortly, will feed into a much wider review on stations, led by Network Rail.
This will take place over the next 12 months involving every train operator, rail funding partner and interest group in the country.
Network Rail is also publishing an information booklet about stations and the research entitled Action Stations. Tens of thousands of leaflets have been handed out to passengers inviting them to take part in an on-line survey.
Did they send a representative to Brigg? If so, it's to be hoped they remembered to come on a Saturday?