A furious commuter has hit out after watching rush hour morning travellers struggling to get onto the fast train from Slough to Paddington - after it arrived with only two carriages.

Barbara Askew, who was trying to get to her job as a London tour guide, says she did not even try to get onto the train.

She said: "Luckily I was not late, so was able to wait for the slow one.

"I felt so sorry for the poor desperate people of Slough. They did not announce until the tree arrived that it was only two carriages, so people who had spread out because of the crowd were rushing back down the platform - and ended up being among the ones that could not get on at all."

She said the train had been the only fast one for an hour and a half and that two carriages was totally inadequate for the crowds of sweltering commuters waiting for it.

This week a spokesman for Great Western Railway said that the 8.20 was usually run as a three carriage train - but that engineering works at Newbury had forced the temporary reduction, which would last until Sunday, August 5.

He emphasised that five new eight carriage long electric Electrostar trains did run from Slough to London Paddington between 7.30 and 8.30 - some of them semi-fast with only limited stops.

He said: "From next year, the 8.20 train will be replaced by one of our new Intercity Express Trains which will see a significant increase in seat numbers and passenger comfort.

Services through Slough will be further improved by the introduction of the full Elizabeth Line from Reading to the heart of London in December 2019."