“Following last night’s misery for thousands of St Albans commuters, FCC should be hanging its head in shame,” said Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat candidate for St Albans.

“Time and again, they fall down on basic communication during these incidents.  And then compensation is made unnecessarily bureaucratic and inconvenient.

“They must prioritise getting good, clear information to stranded passengers.  And the whole rail industry needs to wake up and speed up the introduction of a fair and simple compensation scheme for commuters who are the railway’s cash cow.

“It’s quite simple.  Until they can guarantee a reliable service which is all that people want, the two ‘C’s in FCC should be Communication and Compensation,” Sandy concluded.