THE story of what happened to Darwen student Jennifer Preston when she was caught up in the weekend gales while travelling on German railways highlights everything that is wrong with our own public transport system.

Her train was held up because of broken branches on the line and electrical faults which threatened to leave her stranded 50 miles from her destination.

But rather than leaving passengers in ignorance and worry, the train operators ensured that everyone was well fed while they investigated the situation.

Then, having ascertained they were unable to continue transporting them, the rail staff sent every passenger home in a paid-for taxi - armed with a £20 voucher.

Anyone who has travelled on German railways will not recognise the reaction as particularly unusual. This is a country, after all, where different operators actually hold back connections if there are any delays rather than almost gleefully send off one train as another draws into the station.

Even without the industrial action that has dogged hard-pressed travellers for many, many months the standards we see on our railways do not bear comparison with what Germans are used to.

On our local services, trains are regularly cancelled without warning which is especially irritating if you are waiting on a cold, dark (the lights are often not switched on until the sun comes up!) unmanned station platform.

When the trains do arrive they are noisy, draughty and dirty and, of course, there is no food.

Inter city operations are not much better and for reasons which would baffle foreigners, the 'restaurant car' services they do offer seem to disappear at weekends.

We're not talking about the abnormal conditions forced by industrial action - sadly this is the norm.

Rail transport in Germany is treated as a high priority for public investment and for those running it the word service has a quite different meaning.