A VILLAGER has criticised the rail service which runs trains to and from his rural community, claiming the transport needs of people living in the countryside are being ignored.

Paul Mason, from Ulleskelf, near Tadcaster, featured in a Channel Five documentary called Going Loco in which he lambasted the service run by Northern Spirit between his village and York.

Mr Mason, who is registered disabled, told the Evening Press: "Trains in our village are a lifeline. But the message just doesn't get through."

He said that the latest blow to the village service was the summer timetable which puts back the first train of the day to York from 7.57am to 8.08am.

"Commuters use the service and so do schoolchildren and it means that it's going to be very awkward for them to get to work or school on time.

"I work in York and as I'm partially sighted I can't drive and there's no bus service. So I am dependent on the train and I can't run to work."

Mr Mason said: "When we first moved to Ulleskelf about 25 years ago, we had God knows how many trains. Now there are only a few."

He said a particular grievance for villagers who shop and work in York is that there is not a service from the city to the village between 3.30pm and 6.10pm.

Mr Mason compared that to the 70 or 80 trains that he estimated went through the village every day on a direct route between York and Leeds.

He added: "I am just trying to put some pressure on Northern Spirit to come up with something more."

Mr Mason also called into question the reliability of the services that do run to and from the village.

"Trains often run 25 minutes late and it's only really a skeletal service."

He also blamed North Yorkshire County Council for not putting enough funding into railways for rural communities.

"They will not put money in to subsidise these trains."

He said money was being put in to fund recently-announced new services between Selby and Manchester Airport, and between Hull and London, but nothing was being found for what he termed the "bread and butter" journeys made by people every day.

A spokeswoman for Northern Spirit said: "We do take notice of people's views and will be looking at the timing of the trains.

"We monitor the performance of all our services and are committed to improving our levels of reliability on that route."