TRANSPORT minister Kim Howells came to Swindon on a rail service fact finding mission to find out why one in five trains don't arrive on time and his train was 14 minutes late.

Due in at 11.55am yesterday, the train rolled in at 12.09pm, as Government and rail industry press officers made mobile telephone calls in a bid to discover what had gone wrong.

Meanwhile, the message board at the station said punctuality yesterday was running at 74 per cent train operator First Great Western's target is 90 per cent.

The company's director for safety and performance, Alison Forster, blamed speed restrictions on the approach to Swindon.

The minister confessed his irritation with unpunctual trains.

He said: "I'm just as cheesed off as anybody else about it.

"I want to know why trains are so often late.

"Just last week my train to Cardiff was 25 minutes late and I missed my connection to the valleys. It is not good enough."

Mr Howells pointed out that some of the delays on the line between London and the West, which passes through Swindon, could be blamed on the need for track repairs and the fact that the line was busier than it had ever been.

He said: "What is quite clear is that the line built by Brunel has been quite badly affected by the very hot summer that we have had."

The minister said that the effect of rain on this dry ground beneath parts of the track led to a need for repairs and hence speed restrictions.

He added: "The line is also busier than it has ever been.

"It is now carrying more coal, for example, than at any time in its history. This is a 125mph line which also has to accommodate goods trains which travel at 60mph."

Mr Howells was in Swindon as part of a tour of various locations in which he has met and listened to the ideas and concerns of Network Rail staff.

He pledged to bear their concerns in mind when formulating strategies for improving the infrastructure of the service.

He also said the Government was spending £73m a week in order to improve the experience of the travelling public and tempt them away from their cars and onto public transport.

According to the latest Govern-ment figures, the station handles almost 2.5m passenger transactions a year, whether from people arriving, departing or meeting connecting trains.

The Government claims that four out of every five trains run on time.

However, Sean O'Neill, deputy secretary of independent monitoring and pressure group the Rail Passengers Committee for Western England, pointed out that this meant one in five did not run on time.

He also noted that under the current rules, a train could be claimed by an operator to be on time even if it was up to 10 minutes late.

Mr O'Neill said punctuality levels were stabilising after being in freefall for some time.

He conceded that train operators, First Great Western included, were improving punctuality, and laid much of the blame for delays on track restrictions imposed by Network Rail during repairs.

But he said: "With more taxpayers' money spent on the railways than there ever was during the days of British Rail, taxpayers deserve to know what it is being spent on."

bhudson@newswilts.co.uk