FIRST Great Western services were slammed by Swindon councillors last night.

Lack of communication, high prices, over-crowding of trains, poor facility for sporting events and unreliability were all criticised during a heated scrutiny committee meeting.

Councillors heard a presentation by FGW regional manager Andrew Griffiths entitled All Change For FGW, in which he admitted that performance had been unacceptable.

He said: "We recognise that we are bottom of the class in terms of performance and we recognise that there is work to be done."

He pointed to changes in personnel, increased investment and a major re-engineering exercise on high-speed train engines as evidence of steps towards improvement.

But he also admitted that £29m of the money put towards improvements was actually the result of a penalty payment due to the company contravening the terms of its franchise, owing to excessive cancellations.

Coun Peter Greenhalgh (Con, Freshbrook and Grange Park), cabinet member for highways, transport and strategic planning, was one of the councillors who voiced his frustration with FGW.

He said: "For me, and many other people, there is just no incentive to use the train.

"Even taking into account the cost of petrol, the congestion tax and parking it is still cheaper for me to take my car to London.

"Are you actually interested in increasing the number of passengers?"

Mr Griffiths replied that of course the company wanted to see more people using the trains and was trying to encourage off-peak travel.

Coun Peter Mallinson (Con, Walcot) was concerned about health and safety issues, after his experiences on a train to Paddington.

He said: "I was appalled at the number of people who were standing in the aisles and I can't believe that is in line with health and safety."

Mr Griffiths said that there is nothing inherently dangerous about passengers standing on a train, although he did admit it is damaging to customer satisfaction.

Another significant issue raised by councillors and a representative of the FGW customer panel was the lack of communication with the passengers.

There were criticisms that passengers were not warned about possible engineering work when buying their tickets and that over-crowding was often a result of passengers simply not knowing that another train was due shortly.

A representative from Network Rail was also due to speak at the meeting.