RAIL users will have an opportunity to raise concerns directly with those responsible for providing services at a public meeting organised by the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter.

The meeting will be held at Malvern Girls' College, next door to Great Malvern Station, at 7.30pm on Wednesday, February 25.

It is part of the Gazette & Reporter's 'Not Getting There' campaign, launched last November to seek improvements to train services between Worcester and Hereford. The move followed increasing concern about late and cancelled trains, which prompted Malvern woman Jackie Carey to set up a Malvern-Ledbury Rail User Group.

Central Trains will be represented at the meeting by its deputy managing director Mike Hague and divisional director Tony Brown.

Representatives from Network Rail and First Great Western, which takes over the London franchise in April, have also been invited.

Editor Nick Howells, who will chair next month's meeting, said he hoped people would come along with constructive ideas of how improvements might be made.

"I'm pleased Central Trains have taken up our invitation and decided to send along such high-powered speakers," he said. "You certainly won't get a better chance to put your views to those who actually take the decisions."

Jackie Carey, who has been invited to speak at the meeting as a representative of passengers, said: "I would like this meeting to first of all be able to get some answers directly from the rail operators as to what they think is at the root of the problems, and some suggestions for solutions not just from them but from the public as well."

Ms Carey addressed a meeting of Malvern Hills District Council on Tuesday, which also gave its backing to next month's public meeting.

Councillors decided to ask representatives of Network Rail and the three local train operators to also attend a meeting of its overview and scrutiny committee to discuss the problems.