A small group of Rail passengers who use village halts to commute to and from work face going home an hour later.

Thames Trains is applying to the Strategic Rail Authority to cut the 5.22pm service from Oxford on the Cotswold Line and replace it with a 6.26pm train.

Passengers who get off at Combe, Finstock and Ascott-under-Wychwood are affected and the Cotswold Line Promotion Group plans to canvass their opinions during the next week.

The proposed change, though, has reopened a row over the types of train that are allowed to stop at the village halts. Thames Trains uses an automatic door system and will only use two carriage trains for the small platforms at Combe, Finstock and Ascott.

Company spokesman Jonathan Radley said: "Automatic doors means that we must open all the doors at once.

"The Health and Safety Executive will not allows us to stop three car trains at these stations and we therefore have to run a two-car set. This results in frequent overcrowding."

The timetable switch, says the company, should ease the problem. The vast majority of commuters wanting to get off at other stations on the line will have caught earlier trains.

Promotion Group chairman Derek Potter said yesterday he understood the train operators' problem.

"It would cost millions of pounds to change the automatic door system. And, as far as we know, there is just a small group of passengers concerned," said Mr Potter.

"We have to bear in mind the risks because of the safety concerns in the industry at present. It may be that the change of time will suit some commuters who leave work a little later.

"We hope to find out from our questionnaire."