If Great Western Railway can’t provide a decent service on their main lines, imagine what it is like for passengers on branch lines (Great Western chaos adds to pressure for review of ‘train pain’ franchise system, 8 September).

Earlier this year GWR apologised for a “rock-bottom service” on the Exeter-Barnstaple line due to shortage of stock and could promise only “standing” room and no “strengthening” of the service until later this year. “Strengthening” has in the past often meant providing sufficient carriages only out of peak times when they are available.

Any so-called improvements to trains on the line have long been promised but have failed to materialise and in any case amount only to “upgraded” trains discarded elsewhere following electrification, itself now delayed. This line is north Devon’s only rail link to the rest of the world, not least to Exeter, where many travel to work, to study and for hospital appointments; 19% of households in north Devon have no car (Devon County Council figures), so rely on trains and buses. They deserve better.

Rumoured improvements to timetables may now come to nothing following timetable disasters across the country, so there is little hope of a regular hourly service, or an end to two-hour gaps, or any rail service from Exeter after 9pm (8pm by bus). An industry overhaul is certainly needed, but must not be confined to relatively fast main lines, and it is not enough.

A proper joined-up transport policy for the whole country, including buses and trains, is now vital. When will we have a transport secretary who even recognises this, never mind acts on it?

Pam Thompson

Bideford, Devon

• The politics of central government and the London mayor are again impacting the lives of commuters on the Southeastern franchise. The DfT invited bids for the Southeastern franchise with a plan to make an announcement in August on who would be running our trains from mid-2019. Unsurprisingly no announcement has been made. None of the three bids (from Govia, Stagecoach and Abellio) are “compliant” and yet the DfT still refuses to transfer the Southeastern Metro routes to TfL. In 2013 the mayor of London (Boris Johnson) wrote to London MPs asking for their support for devolution of the London Metro rail routes to TfL. Chris Grayling wrote back and stated “I would like to keep suburban rail services outside the clutch of any future Labour mayor”. That explains it then.

Michael Shaw

London

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