"Our trains are overcrowded" passengers tell Liberal Democrats

12.49.00pm GMT Sat 22nd Nov 2003

Two thirds of the rail passengers from Andover, Overton and Whitchurch surveyed last week by local Liberal Democrats say that their rush hour trains are too small and overcrowded. This under-capacity is the main cause of dissatisfaction uncovered in a survey led by Martin Tod, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for North West Hampshire.

One regular traveller from Whitchurch wrote that "they have recently shortened the train length of the 8.15 London bound from 6 to 5 carriages - a busy time now even more overcrowded where I always have to stand"

Martin Tod has promised to take up this and other concerns with the management of South West Trains. "We need to know if service on the Andover line has been sacrificed to benefit other services, such as the through trains from Reading to Brighton" he said.

The survey also showed that more than two-thirds of respondents are satisfied with timekeeping on the line and fifty-four percent say that trains run often enough. Eighty-two percent believe that the Labour Government is doing badly at improving rail services while fifty-eight percent think that privatisation by the Conservatives had a negative effect on services. Seventy-seven percent of local travellers agree with the Liberal Democrats that trains and tracks should be maintained by the same body.