FOR many East Lancashire rail-users, there will be a weary and irksome familiarity in the stressful ordeal that teenage passenger Emma Midgley so often endures on her journeys to and from work

In recent weeks, she has been late for her job at Preston more often than not because the train she goes to catch at Accrington has either been delayed or has not arrived at all.

And the same sort of tiresome and frustrating failings afflict her homeward journey -- to such an extent that the 19-year-old cannot even plan anything for her evenings.

The excuses for this abysmal situation are those by-now common ones that have plagued rail travel since privatisation made services range from being highly unreliable to dangerous. We have two train operators blaming driver shortages, speed restrictions caused by the rattletrap infrastructure and even leaves on the lines.

Apologies and explanations that they are working hard to rectify the mess are little comfort for travellers like Emma who have been suffering for weeks on end.

They are paying customers and those delivering such a poor service are either making handsome profits or collecting vast public subsidies. It is time that greater regard was paid to passengers' inconvenience.

In Emma's case, it costs her £25.90 for her weekly return ticket -- quite an item out of a young person's wage. And yet it is reckoned that she gets only about £10-worth of journeys in return and the rest of the time is forced to spend ages waiting in pouring rain on cold mornings for trains that are late or never arrive -- with the upshot that it has made her ill.

She and others like her are being seriously short-changed. If the rail companies cannot deliver the service passengers expect and pay for, then users should be automatically compensated in cash -- and in punitive amounts.