SIX months ago, the Yellow Advertiser started its campaign to reduce overcrowding on services on the c2c Fenchurch Street line

since then, the paper has helped secure the return of services, prevented more carriages being withdrawn and rallied the support of rail user groups, MP's and commuters.

The campaign has earned praise from government ministers, caused questions to be raised in parliament and contributed to the reports of the Rail Passengers Committee of England.

The YA has now prepared its final petition for submission to the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). The document has more than 1,100 signatures from across Essex and also details all of the stories that have been uncovered by the YA news team over the past 30 weeks.

Next week, reporters from the Yellow Advertiser will join forces with Basildon and East Thurrock MP Angela Smith and members of the Thurrock Rail Users Group to submit the petition to the SRA.

The signatures on the petition represent the growing discontent with overcrowding on c2c services at peak times since the company sent carriages to other networks on May last year.

Graeme Clark, of the Rail Passengers' Committee, said that both the SRA and c2c needed to take note of the issues raised in the document.

He added: "Its good that consumers are standing up and saying what they are not happy about. The RPC is continuing to talk to c2c about the issues raised since the trains were taken away."

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