Frustrated Bradford rail travellers today demanded better information to help them heed a call to get back on the trains.

Commuters said providing more news about services, and their changes, was the only way to ensure a £165 million revamp of Leeds station is money well spent.

While Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Transport John Prescott visited yesterday to see how the rebuilding programme was progressing, passengers said a more coherent system of advice would be needed to put trust back into the network.

Many commuters turned up unaware that fleets of buses, every 15 minutes, had replaced the train services to Bradford while work continues on track and signalling until January 2.

Queues formed at specially set-up help points but some travellers were left confused as to how and when they would get to their destination.

Richard Scott, 26, of Undercliffe, Bradford, said: "It's all well and good having a super new station but if we don't know when the trains are running it is no use whatsoever."

Railtrack has put extra staff onto the station to advise customers but, as Mr Prescott congratulated Railtrack on the work during an hour-long tour of the building sites, some Christmas shoppers were disgruntled with the disruption across West Yorkshire.

Danuta Sharp, of Huddersfield, said she didn't know trains weren't running.

"Why is John Prescott here to look at the railway? What railway is there? I have come on a bus and it has taken twice as long to get here."

Tim Calow, chairman of the Airedale Valley Rail User Group, backed calls for a better travel advice system.

"One of the biggest problems recently has been a lack of information to passengers and it is something which hasn't been established. If people know what is going on they are much more tolerant. I hope that with the changes, some effort goes into the better management of information for staff and passengers," he said.

Chris Norris, 43, had travelled through Skipton from Settle.

"I get the feeling the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. People who are giving information to passengers do not know what is happening," he said. "I got 20 minutes into my journey and they said: 'We are not going into Leeds'."

His father Rupert, 70, of Sheffield, said "The sooner the railways are under some centralised control the better."

But Robin Gisby, director of Railtrack London North Eastern, urged travellers to be patient.

"We cannot run trains through building sites. There is a lot of safety work going on and we want the minimum disruption so we have been working morning, noon and night, while everybody has been enjoying Christmas, to get the job done.''