Train talk

The same day at Basingstoke, while listening to the South-East Region Rail Passengers Committee, I noted soaked passengers waiting at a shelterless bus stop for an overdue bus.

Fortunately, the South-West Trains chief executive gave me a lift in his car to show me railway staff in training trying to calm angry passengers.

At Clapham Common junction, I avoided the leaking platform roofs and gutters to board an Eastbourne train with a corroded, leaking roof.

A passenger said: "I wonder what tourists think of our late, overcrowded, filthy, damaged trains?" as a sad food trolley passed by.

While waiting for a train on the Portsmouth line, a train for Wales was announced. Passengers got ready and the train slowly slid by.

Then an announcement: "Sorry, we were not told the train was the previous broken-down train, your train is next."

At Hove, I waited almost half an hour for a number seven bus, my legs got wet as the bus shelter roof is too narrow to keep a downpour away.

The next meeting may be at Gravesend - no pun intended.

-John Stanaway, Lorna Road, Hove