More than 670 people have signed the petition, which demands an end to train overcrowding, lengthy delays and bus transfers between stations.

News of the petition came on the day more than 2,000 rail passengers angry at cuts to services staged a fare strike protest.

Among those who have signed the petition are passengers, MPs, and councillors from throughout the South West.

Campaigner Graham Ellis, who submitted the petition, said: "I'm reluctant to set myself targets as to how many people I hope sign the petition, but we have already got four MPs and more people are signing up all the time.

"There is a lot of talk about train reliability, but it is more than that, it is about the scheduling.

"One of my customers used to have a choice of three trains an hour between Bedminster and Filton and now there is just a single one."

He said he hoped a more appropriate solution to the current First Great Western timetable crisis could be found.

Protests broke out after the firm introduced a new timetable on the former Wessex Trains franchise in December.

Passengers in some areas, such as at Severn Tunnel Junction, found their services dramatically cut.

Mr Ellis's petition calls for more reliable services and better capacity at stations between Swindon and Westbury, Bristol and Severn Beach, Portsmouth and Cardiff, Taunton and Cheltenham, and Swindon and Cheltenham.

Log on to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wessextrains/ for more details.

See also:

PM petitioned over rail services

BBC News: 23 January 2007

A group of rail users fed-up with late and crowded trains throughout the west have set up a petition on the Prime Minister Tony Blair's website.

More than 2,000 passengers were said to have used fake tickets

More than 400 people have signed the petition which calls for a reliable train service with adequate capacity at times travellers wish to make journeys.

They want an immediate return to the timetable which was changed last year.

On Monday campaigners said about 2,000 rail passengers refused to pay fares in a day of protest over services.

Protest group More Trains Less Strain said passengers travelling between Bristol and Bath handed in fake tickets rather than pay for real ones.

First Great Western (FGW) spokeswoman Elaine Wilde said many protesters took fake tickets but still paid their fare.

Immediate return

Tony Ambrose from the campaign group said problems began in December when the number of carriages and frequency of trains was reduced.

The petition calls for "an immediate return of a service that meets the needs of travellers in Wiltshire, Bristol, B&NES and South East Wales" and includes all intermediate stations and journeys in both directions.

FGW said the problems had been caused by a backlog of maintenance work which the company was working hard to clear.

Regional manager Andrew Griffiths said earlier: "We do understand why people have been upset.

"We have had these maintenance difficulties, but our new £8m depot in Bristol has pretty much caught up with the backlog."