THE Guardian is continuing its campaign against Virgin Trains and has received a letter from Chris Green, Chief Executive of the company.

In the letter Mr Green states that the West Coast trains will cease to call at Hartford after May 19 because of "poor usage".

"Pre Hatfield, when our business was booming, only 60 people per day on average used our Hartford to London trains."

He added: "We also need to speed up our Liverpool and Preston services to increase track capacity to allow extra trains to run."

The letter has angered members of Mid Cheshire Rail Users Association.

In a statement to the Guardian MCRUA said: "We deplore the withdrawal of the London services from Hartford by Virgin Trains.

"We would like more Virgin services to call at Hartford.

"Virgin Trains need to double the number of passengers they carry to meet the terms of their franchise and we do not believe that this can be achieved by withdrawing well-used stops in this way."

Meanwhile our Guardian campaign is still going strong - with over 1,200 names on the petition to save train services.

It is still available to be signed at various shops throughout the area and at the Guardian office, 15 Market Street, Northwich.