COMMUTERS were unmoved by calls for a day of action and a boycott of trains on Friday.

Many travellers using Chippenham station were unaware the Better Rail Advisory Group (BRAG) had planned a day of action for March 21.

All was quiet from the organisation in the week leading up to the planned event with no updates on the group's website and no contact from leaders David Da Costa, of Colerne, and Paul Gentleman, from Swindon.

Now, however, Mr Da Costa has announced a new date for a passengers' strike the third the group has declared.

"Due to meetings with the Strategic Rail Authority and the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, we agreed with other rail users groups the date of April 12," he said.

"We will have a press conference in London on Thursday, allowing the press to meet all the rail user groups.

"We shall also be handing the press itineraries for the week leading up to April 12."

The first day of action had been scheduled for March 1, when Mr Da Costa and Mr Gentleman called upon Transport secretary Stephen Byers to meet ten key demands to improve the rail service.

The day of action was postponed because of the difficulties facing Mr Byers and his department and a new date, March 22 was proposed and posted on the group's website.

Now the third date has been put forward and Mr Da Costa said the call for a strike would definitely go ahead regardless of what Mr Byers might offer in the meantime.

A spokesman for First Great Western said they were not aware of any passengers boycotting services on Friday and assumed the protest had not gone ahead.

Civil servant David Blackmore, from Chippenham, said he was not a regular rail user but if he had heard about the boycott he would have joined it in protest because of the train delays his daughter had faced while commuting to university.

Chloe Johnson, who travels from Chippenham to her job at a finance company in Swindon every day, said she had suffered delays and overcrowding the day before because of a landslip. "I hadn't heard about the boycott, but if I had I would definitely have joined it," she said.

Sally Isom, an audio editor from Chippenham, said if she had heard about it she would have joined a boycott if she could, but she had travelled to London and had wanted to leave her car behind.

Lis Moir, a teacher from London, said she had not heard anything about a boycott, but she would have made alternative travel arrangements if she had because she is unhappy about the cost of rail travel. "The trains are so expensive. I come from Australia where a similar journey to the one from London to Chippenham costs about £5," she said.

Meanwhile passengers using the line between Bristol and Bath suffered disruption on Sunday following the closure of the line because of a landslip near Bath.