Arriva Trains Northern was today accused of dragging its heels on a compensation package for beleaguered passengers.

Bradford councillor Ann Ozolins, a member of West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, was also appalled by the company's announcement that services will not be running normally until May.

Coun Ozolins, who serves on Bradford Passenger Consultative Committee, said everyone had expected services to be back to normal in February.

"This means people will have suffered for a very long time," she said. "They were promised that things would be normal by May this year and it never happened."

She said people using the Wharfedale line have come out with the worst deal.

But a company spokesman said today the firm has always made it clear that services are expected to be back to normal in May when the current phase of the improvements at Leeds station is completed. The company is in talks with the Strategic Rail Authority and North of England passenger transport authorities over compensation. "There are no details about compensation at the present time," she said.

The company has been ordered by the Strategic Rail Authority, however, to pay £250,000 compensation to passengers for every four weeks of the revised services.

Coun Ozolins said she was contacting West Yorkshire PTA about the situation and wanted fast action to help passengers. "It should have been foreseen that compensation would be necessary," she said. "A lot of people, including myself, have Metro cards. A service was paid for which was not forthcoming."

Coun Ozolins spoke out as passengers began their second day of revised schedules where many rail services in the district have been replaced by buses.

The SRA proposes to fine the company £2 million for chaos in the summer when scores of passengers were left waiting on platforms for services which failed to turn up. The authority previously fined the company £9 million for its performance up to last March.

Arriva Trains Northern has pledged the revised timetable will be reliable and passengers will not be let down .