Commuters angered by delays to their train journeys today staged a demonstration at St Albans City Station.

More than 40 disgruntled rail users took to platform 4 to protest after months of chaos caused by frequent cancellations by Govia.

Brandishing placards, members of the Train Suffererjettes, a campaign group for commuting-parents, chanted through a megaphone.

READ MORE: Protest against the unreliable train service at St Albans City train station

Laura-Jane Silverman, who spearheaded the campaign, said: “It was brilliant but freezing.

“We had local councillors with us and Govia representatives were there as well answering questions people had.

“The protest was to show people they are not powerless. When you are commuting everyone is sort of silent but this protest is just the start of many protests.

“With the work being done at London Bridge the service will not be improved until late 2018.

“But Govia should provide some contingency plans. If a service is cancelled or delays they should provide alternative routes for people to get home.

“We know this will not change overnight but Mrs Silverman and the other ‘suffererjettes’ have been in contact with Govia Thameslink before the protest but they did not hear back from them.

According to Mrs Silverman, Govia has said if there is any cancellations or disruption to the journey the barriers at the end will be open.

Hertfordshire county councillor Sandy Walkington said: "I was on the Environment and Transport Panel at County Hall which grilled Thameslink senior executives last week. 

"It goes without saying that the service needs to be run as advertised.  But problems are likely to continue in the near term due to driver shortages, track closures at London Bridge and teething problems with the new Class 700 trains. 

"None of these is the fault of the poor long suffering passengers and they should be properly compensated, not just Delay Repay but a proper and substantial fare cut until the advertised service can be delivered.”

Although this is the first protest in St Albans, the Train Suffererjettes are hoping other commuters at different stations will follow and hold their own protests.

Mrs Silverman added: “We want people to join in. Some people have said they cannot work in central London anymore because of the commute and even some employees are not hiring people because they know about the awful service.

“For me the commute should be an hour journey but because of the train service it can take up to two hours.

"I had to leave work two hours earlier just to get home to see my children’s Christmas play.

“This should not have to be the case.”

Roger Perkins, from Govia Thameslink, said: "We know services have not been good enough and would like to reassure passengers we are working hard to make them better.

"We are in the middle of massive improvements that will transform the railway but they do make it very difficult to run a punctual railway.

"The reconstruction of London Bridge will remove a bottleneck to let us run more services to relieve overcrowding but while the work's going on it's caused a massive increase in knock-on delays across the network.

"We have to recruit and train more drivers for the new trains we're bringing in and our suppliers are working on ways to improve their reliability.

"In the meantime, we now have compensation available for anyone delayed by 15 minutes or more instead of the former 30 minutes, which the people in Elstree & Borehamwood, Radlett and St Albans have been calling for for years."