Bizarre Stopping Patterns

I've travelled a few times recently out to leafy Buckinghamshire on Chiltern Railways.

These trips have all been 'off-peak' and frequently against the flow of commuters. The services have invariably been on-time , hassle free and reasonable value for money.

I do however have a couple of observations which have niggled me recently:

• Chiltern Railways operate the weirdest stopping patterns imaginable- most train operating companies offer services that are 'fast' or 'semi-fast' or 'slow', but with some predictability. Chiltern Railways seem to offer trains that, particularly in peak-hours, have no discernible pattern of stops- they usually stop where they say they will but seem to be entirely for the benefit of passengers boarding at London Marylebone. This particularly applies to services that terminate at or before High Wycombe.
  

• Since the timetable changes early last month, it is apparent to huge numbers of commuters that Chiltern Railways have got the combinations of passenger loads, train times and train lengths totally wrong. Trains are frequently overcrowded (this was rare before December) and nobody seems to give a stuff. People on platforms, and while boarding trains, are openly discussing how their experience of the service have deteriorated over the last month. This is not good- Chiltern Railways risk plummeting down any performance league tables, which is a shame as they are usually a fairly good train company despite my occasional criticisms.
  

I don't have a full solution (maybe I should try to work one up), but would welcome any ideas.