The service offered by First Capital Connect has been reviewed by the district council’s scrutiny committee.

A lack of information during disruption, car parking and compensation were some of the things that politicians discussed with the provider’s senior management on Thursday, September 27.

Representatives from the company met members of the committee in January and Thursday’s meeting was used to see what progress has been made since then.

Councillor Robert Donald, chairman of the council’s local services scrutiny committee, said: "Many of our residents are commuters who rely on the Thameslink service to get them to and from work as efficiently and comfortably as possible.

"Disruption and delays to our rail service can cause understandable frustration and anger for travellers.

"On behalf of local passengers our committee has been meeting regularly with First Capital Connect and Network Rail to scrutinise their performance, pass on rail users’ complaints and seek improvements to the train service."

During the meeting, rail company staff apologised for the removal of a ticket machine at St Albans City Station without giving any notice.

They also spoke about improvements to communication through Twitter, emails and online real-time service information.

Plans for additional cycle parking, new flooring on the footbridge and an increase in the number of disabled car parking spaces were also discussed.

Councillors raised several others issues with the management on behalf of passengers who use the service regularly.

These including graffiti, short trains and a lack of pro-active customer care.

Another meeting will be held in six months' time to check the progress made.

Councillor Donald added: "When we last met with FCC and Network Rail in January the companies agreed to report back to us this month on several matters of concern.

"We expressed continuing concern about the lack of transparency, customer care and flexibility over FCC’s current ‘Delay Repay’ policy and we are expecting they will review this before our next meeting in 2013 and suggest improvements.

"The committee thanked both companies for their excellent performance during the summer London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and lack of travel disruption."