Letter to the editor: Passengers deserve more

Unfortunately, the contact shoes on our Southern trains can become detached, often as a result of hitting an obstruction on the line. Such occurrences are relatively rare but the train stops due to being unable to draw the electric current to propel the train.

Railway staff then have to get an empty train to the offending train and get it out of the way to get the service running again. Once the offending train is removed the service will take a while to get back to normal as trains and crews will be displaced. Hardly a poor service, in fact the railway staff would have worked hard to get the service back to normal in the shortest possible time. Perhaps he should have taken a 700 bus to Littlehampton and a 500 to Yapton, he'd have been there in an hour and a half.

He then goes on to bemoan the cost of a season ticket to London. At £5,000, and assuming he only works 46 weeks of the year, this puts the daily fare to £21.74 which seems quite reasonable to me. Generally speaking most employers in London pay London Weighting or some form of enhanced pay which covers the travel cost. If one works in London and lives by the coast there's a cost to pay.

What is exorbitant is the turn up and go price of £76.90 in the rush hour, and 43.90 outside peak hours which passengers who simply turn up and go have to pay. That said, my understanding is that the higher peak prices reflect the additional rolling stock which sits idle outside of peak hours. Even so that price can be reduced with things like Network cards.

Paul Snelling

Tarring Gate, Worthing