The public were invited to attend a meeting held by MP for Hertsmere Oliver Dowden to allow questions to be asked to senior representatives of the train companies.

More than 50 angry and disappointed members of the public turned up to the meeting held last night at Hertsmere Borough Council offices.

The Thameslink line, which goes through Radlett and Borehamwood, has been under scrutiny recently for the failure to provide a reasonable and suitable service for commuters with many trains being delayed and cancelled.

The meeting allowed staff from Thameslink to answer any questions and provided a platform for a discussion revealing the unanimous disappointment of the general public.

Thameslink also revealed it does not receive any money from ticket fares but instead relies on money from car parking but the company does get penalised and fined if a service is running late.

All ticket fares go to the Department for Transport (DfT) who provide performance reviews for each company.

When asked why Thameslink keep failing to meet their targets set by the DfT, Stuart Cheshire, of Thameslink, referred back to December 2014 when London Bridge went under development.

He said: “There is nothing we can do about London Bridge. It takes up to four times longer now than previously.

“There will be good improvements and reliability to our service over the next two and a half years.

“We are penalised for any train that is running late.”

The Thameslink staff also revealed that there will be ‘visible staff’ at each station with the ability to sell tickets at any time of the day.

A resident also asked why drivers do not give announcements upon arriving at a station.

Mr Cheshire said: “Our drivers only give announcements when they think it is safe. We are working hard to change this.”

In the meeting it was revealed that it takes around 14 months to fully train a new driver and in January 2016 Thameslink had 10 to 15 newly qualified drivers.

Other issues were raised including the lack of space on the four carriage trains to which Thameslink said by 2018 there will only be eight and 12 carriage trains.

Mr Dowden, who was chairing the meeting, said he would like to hold another meeting in three to six months to see what promises had been kept or broken.

At the end of the meeting Mr Dowden asked Mr Cheshire to give an estimate of where they hope to be in 12 months’ time.

Mr Cheshire said: “In 12 months there will be little difference to the service that is available now.

“By 2018, there will be better infrastructure, new trains and a better service.”