The proposed two-day strikes by members of the RMT Union employed by Arriva Trains Northern will be yet another blow to beleaguered travellers, and particularly to the long-suffering commuters of West Yorkshire who have had to put up with so much over such a long period.

The extensive programme of improvement work at Leeds station has meant that for many of them rail travel has turned out to be journeys by replacement bus, taking them a lot longer to get to their destination. Then there has been the sorry saga of Arriva's notorious shortage of drivers, which initially led to a host of cancellations and has now been "dealt with" by reduced timetables being introduced until enough new drivers can be recruited and trained to restore services to the level which passengers are entitled to expect.

As if less frequent and overcrowded local trains aren't enough, problems with main-line services have affected punctuality and caused cancellations there too. And now a strike threatens to bring further considerable disruption to this region.

All this is at a time when there is fast-growing demand for rail travel from people who are fed up of coping in their cars on overcrowded roads. They are turning to public transport - which is what the Government says it wants them to do. Yet the railway branch of that public transport is letting them down badly.

The Government which is presiding over this chaos seems unwilling or unable to do anything about it. It is time that Transport Secretary Stephen Byers made a greater effort to get to grips with the situation instead of letting it go from bad to worse.