ALTON Line Users Association (ALUA) is urging local rail travellers to help monitor train performance over the next six months by keeping logs of their journeys.

The call follows concerns over major delays, experienced over the holiday period, due to track work at Clapham junction.

In addition, records are needed to help in ALUAÕs current campaign for the reinstatement of double track working between Alton and Farnham.

At a meeting with the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) in London on December 18, ALUA was said to be ÒheartenedÓ by the constructive nature of the talks.

According to ALUA chairman Chris Campbell, the SRA acknowledged the problems on the Alton line and confirmed that it was they who would be responsible for providing funding to rectify them.

Buoyed by this positive reaction, ALUA is determined to keep up the pressure for a return to double track working which it believes is needed, at least as far as Wrecclesham bridge, to facilitate the successful reintroduction in June 2003 of a half-hourly service to Alton.

The fear is, according to Mr Campbell, that under the present arrangements, SWT says it will be unable to maintain a half-hourly service into late-evening due to lack of track capacity.

ÒThis is not the level of service that passengers should expect on this line, which used to enjoy a half-hourly service through to the last train at night,Ó he said.

With an imminent increase in passenger and freight services predicted on the line, due in part to the current installation by Onyx Hampshire Waste of a new materials recovery facility (MRF) on the A31 at Cuckoos Corner, ALUA believes the need for increased track capacity to be Òa major issue for the Alton line, which must be taken seriously by the SRAÓ. It is hoped, in particular, that much of the waste materials transported to and from the MRF site will eventually go by rail.

ALUA is being backed in its campaign by Railfuture - a pressure group which is said to have identified the doubling of the Alton line as second in a list of ten priority schemes nationwide which could help to improve reliability and punctuality across the network.

l Passenger travel logs should be sent to ALUA member, Paul Barber at 25 Plovers Way, Alton, GU34 27J or by e-mail to: [email protected]">[email protected]