SADLY – and after 40 years of campaigning to improve both services and facilities at Pershore railway station – I have to agree with much of Andrew Dyke's letter in the Journal (December 11) that there is too much unfinished business.

Services have improved from just two trains to more than 30 trains a day to serve the 8,000 residents of the town and neighbouring villages but it has been a constant, and uphill battle, not just to improve but to maintain hard-won services.

Completion of the majority of the double tracking project four years ago gave fresh hope that we would soon see the long awaited introdution of an hourly service for the whole Cotswold Line (west of Moreton the improvement has amounted to just one extra train each way and journey times with the odd exception are slower than they were in 2004!).

Overlong two-hour gaps in the timetable are further exacerbated by the all too regular termination of late-running trains short of their destination causing serious inconvenience to commuters in the Vale and the Malverns.

Pershore is now faced by the double whammy of political pressure to achieve a two-hour timing between Worcester and London and the Worcester Parkway project, both of which pose a serious threat not just to Pershore but to other local stations and services.

Moves towards a two-hour timing could be achieved through more robust timetabling with better use of existing double track sections rather than by resorting to withdrawing stops at Pershore and failing to improve Honeybourne's services.

The revised Worcester Parkway project is not the innovative rail interchange it once was, but is now seen as a motorist's railhead with its success predicated upon high volume usage of the 500-space car park.

Meanwhile, the Pershore station car park saga – despite the positive intervention of Wychavon District Council – now drags on into its 13th year faced by fresh challenges of new legal obstacles and additional costs built into a scheme which should have been completed years ago.

The long-awaited enlarged car park also needs to be on an access for all users basis whether arriving by private car, on foot, by bicycle, taxi or bus – and a taxi rank and provision for a bus turning area and a dedicated town-station bus service should feature – especially in view of projected development of up to 600 houses within just half a mile of the station.

Our local MPs have been helpful to Pershore's – and the line's – cause over the years, but an early new year resolution to give greater priority to moves towards an hourly regular interval Cotswold Line service serving Pershore rather than focussing on a two-hour timing would be welcome.

Julian Palfrey

Pershore