Strange bunch, train commuters. "Man is born free, but is everywhere in trains," wrote Roger Green (pen name Tiresias) back in 1984 in his book Notes from the Overground - about life as seen by someone doomed to spend his days travelling back and forth between Oxford and Paddington.

Even back then - and indeed some ten years later, when I started commuting from Combe to Oxford - tannoy announcements were weird, overcrowded trains were late, and bosses were constantly proclaiming that things would soon improve.

Little has changed. I asked First Great Western (FGW) chief executive Andrew Haines why not. Why should anyone should believe his protestations of better times ahead, after so many similar announcements from successive chief executives?

Sitting in his Swindon office - where I had travelled by train from Oxford without a hitch - he said: "Historically, there were 200 trains running a day on the First Great Western network. Now there are 1,400.

"Our biggest problem now is dealing with growth; 14 years ago the industry was dealing with decline. Railways are a success story of recent years, with year-on-year growth at First Great Western between eight and 10 per cent, 4,700 employees, and turnover hitting £600m."

"Success story" on his lips may bring a wry smile or two to the faces of commuters on, say, the Oxford-to-Hereford Cotswold Line. They are so frustrated that in January they threatened a fare strike against FGW, a company that has featured consistently among the worst performers in the industry's punctuality league tables.

Members of commuters' organisation Ox Rail Action last month decided to suspend their threatened fare strike after FGW doubled compensation for passengers experiencing poor service.

Zahra Akkerhuys, spokesperson for Ox Rail Action, said: "We welcomed the move to double compensation and the admission that service is not up to scratch, and we were pleased FGW has acknowledged that it needs to change."

But what passengers want to know is whether the company's timetable is deliverable at all. That was the question put to FGW's route manager for the Thames Valley, Mike Carroll, last month by Opposition leader and Witney MP, David Cameron, at a crisis meeting of commuters and rail bosses in Charlbury.

It was a fair enough question too, since FGW is expanding to meet increasing demand on an ageing infrastructure, most of which it does not control - the Cotswold Line for instance, much of which is single track.

Mr Cameron told disgruntled passengers that he had received a massive amount of correspondence about poor performance from rail users on the route between Oxford and Worcester.

Mr Haines told me: "I think the timetable is deliverable. About 70 per cent of delays in the Thames Valley are the fault of Network Rail. Any delay causes congestion. Now I am working closely with Dave Ward, Network Rail's route director for Great Western, identifying physical changes needed for the infrastructure."

Network Rail, meanwhile, maintains that only 52 per cent of delays are down to infrastructure problems.

Mr Haines added: "We're investing £200m. There is more money going in than coming out during the first three years of this franchise. Fare rises this year generated £30m, but we lost £50m of Government subsidy.

"We are introducing 30 per cent increased capacity with improved high-speed trains which are 18 per cent more fuel-efficient."

But what of a long-term strategy to ease congestion and therefore delays for the company, which has a franchise due to expire in 2014, with a two-year extension option?

Mr Haines said: "I'll stick my neck out and say this: I expect positive news in 2008 about the conversion of exisiting goods loops for passenger trains and an additional platform at Oxford, as well as confirmation of Network Rail's plans to redouble sections of the North Cotswolds line."

The conversion of existing freight loops at Oxford station is important, since at present there is little room for manouevre at Oxford station, causing congestion, and hence delays.

Ms Akkerhuys welcomed Mr Haines prediction. She said: "Mr Haines has recognised that he needs to do more than just tinker at the edges and that radical action needs to be taken if the service his company delivers is to be improved. We welcome any changes that will really improve the service for Oxford passengers."

Little need to tell passengers on the Cotswold Line just how much doubling the line would improve their lives. They are quite used to admiring the view from a stationary window for longish periods at the beginning and end of the single-line section between Wolvercote and Ascott under Wychwood.

The Cotswold Line's performance is even worse than overall figures for FGW network, with punctuality figures at times last year slipping to just below 70 per cent. Does Mr Haines not wish he could bring it up to par - as Laing managed to do on single-line sections of the Chiltern Line through Oxfordshire?

"That is not how the Department for Transport (DfT) wants to work it now. I am a pragmatist and I see things as they are."

Following this line of questioning, I asked him what his relationship with the DfT was like now, since many of his problems with the introduction of December's new timetable were down to decisions made by civil servants.

He said: "It's true that they specified, but we signed up to it. So it is up to us now."

As for the extra platform in Oxford, it might put an end to some of the more ridiculous scenes at the station, where passengers are sometimes forced to run the gauntlet between platforms as last-minute changes are announced over the tannoy.

Mr Haines, who lives in East Hanney, is himself a rail commuter.

He admitted: "I am sometimes painfully embarrassed by our performance and the reaction of passengers. But obviously I wouldn't do this job if I wanted to be Mr Popularity."

Such embarrassing scenes might include one I witnessed recently: a passenger being locked out of Oxford station by a ticket inspector on platform 2, despite a formal notice saying the gate would be open at that time of day. He was forced to watch his train depart without him.

Back in the days of Tiresias, weird tannoy announcements included: "Will the ICBM intercept the UFO." Strangest heard this year was: "The train on platform 1 will be... destroyed."

It resulted from a curious tannoy arrangement at Oxford station that allows live voices to interrupt recorded announcements at will - such as those warning passengers not to leave bags unattended or risk having them destroyed.

Tiresias, by the way, Oxford's most famous commuter, finally escaped the treadmill and now lives on the Greek island of Hydra.