However, after months of painstaking research, I can now reveal the true meaning of this 1965 hit. Smokey was singing about customer service on our railways.

Like George Orwell before him, Smokey was evoking a terrifying future where repair work would mean that no-one could travel at Christmas, New Year or Easter, where people could be held up for 40 minutes between York and Leeds without explanation, and where, and I know this part will strain your credulity, one part of government fines another when it all goes wrong. That's right. The Office for Rail Regulation fines Network Rail.

Train companies tell us that more people are now travelling by train, but that can't be explained by the way the industry is run. Trains don't connect like they used to and tickets don't cross regional boundaries either. It's often possible to travel long haul more cheaply by paying for regional legs individually, rather than for the whole journey at once. Soon we'll need a degree in actuarial studies to purchase tickets – and didn't many of us revert to trains because the roads are too crowded?

We have fewer and shorter trains on some of the UK's main commuter line, as well as delays, cancellations and overcrowding. We've had cases of franchise owners handing out leaflets telling passengers not to board trains, and in one spectacularly telling case, a first-class carriage was missing from a train, so those passengers affected were simply told to occupy seats in standard class.

When someone pointed out to the first-class ticket holder that the seat they had taken was theirs – and they had a reservation to prove it – the train guard refused to act. Perhaps he had been rendered helpless by the complexity of the ticket validity announcement he had to make upon departure.

I could go on, unless I was a customer of First Great Western, of course, in which case I would probably have to remain stationary, since their response to winning the franchise in 2006 was to immediately remove 20 carriages from a service that was already running near full capacity.

The fact that customer service levels are unacceptable on our rail services reveals a deeper malaise. When we interact with an organisation as customers, our experience tells us a lot about what really motivates the people behind the organisation.

Where their focus is on excellence – and our very own First Direct is a good example of this – then this manifests itself in the customer service that we receive. However, where service is indifferent, inconsistent or, in the case of our railways, rarely even apparent, it points to a simple conclusion: the industry pays lip service to the passenger, because we're just not on their radar. Yes, there might be the odd survey and the odd customer service training session, but I'd be surprised if the subject ever made it to a board-level agenda. They're more interested in the economics of their franchise.

If it did, rail companies would be building our advocacy upon feedback, transparency and trust. We would see visible evidence of customer focus in improved services and more accountability when things go wrong. After all, didn't the Government promise us, shortly before they took power, that there would be a "publicly accountable publicly-owned railway"?

Some franchise owners can quite rightly point to impressive developments, such as environmental initiatives, safer stations and ticketing technology, but to claim that the thousands of cheap advance tickets (such as the £37.50 one-way, first-class Leeds-to-London ticket) benefit all, defrauds one crucial constituency – the rush-hour commuter.

Peak-hour travel is just not cost effective, so regardless of the environmental benefits of abandoning the car, it is just not affordable.

Perhaps the answer is simple. If we need a decent rail service, at a fair price, where trains of sufficient length arrive on time at an appropriate frequency, then we need to re-nationalise the railways.

More Train Less Strain, a rail passenger campaigning group, regularly point to the Government's "insane" policy for awarding franchises, explaining that it does not appear to have anything to do with providing a decent rail service.

For example, First Great Western announced an increase in profits of 10 per cent to September last year. Curiously enough, the same 10 per cent as the fare increase endured by its customers.

It could be argued that the only people benefiting from the Government's attitude to the railways are the shareholders and the Exchequer. Add to that the fact that currently we (taxpayers) subsidise the rail companies to the tune of £5bn and one can understand why so many people are now in favour of re-nationalisation.

The problem is that our leaders now acknowledge that it might cost as much as £20bn to put things right. Rather than getting to grips with an issue that could have many positive ramifications for our economy, the Government imply that this money would have to be taken from existing spending plans on other public services like schools and hospitals. Everyone seems to agree that re-nationalisation would be a good thing, but the guilt card has been played.

So is there a journey out of the impasse? Two thoughts spring to mind. First, if our existing rail franchise holders recognised that the most successful organisations (in both service and economic terms) are those who seek, above everything else, to build a community, where leaders, employees and customers feel like equal partners in something worth fighting for, then there's a chance that we could get back on track.

But if that doesn't happen – and I wouldn't put any money on it – then perhaps customer action is the one arrow remaining in our quiver.

More Train Less Strain has, through direct passenger action (involving refusing to show valid tickets as a protest against poor service), achieved a commitment from First Great Western to invest £29m in improving the passenger's lot.

As individuals, we can continue to bemoan the situation, but as a community, we can start to leverage our considerable influence.

Strangely enough, further research reveals that even Smokey Robinson foresaw direct action as being a potential solution to our transport problems. "If you feel like giving me a life time of locomotion," he apparently observed. "I second that commotion."

Mark Bradley campaigns for better customer service in the UK. Author of 'Inconvenience Stores: One Year in UK Customer Service' (www.ardrapress.com), he is a consultant and business speaker.