Credit to the staff of Southern Trains for achieving on-time trains.

As a former railwayman of 29 years' service, I know how tough the recent past has been.

Indeed, my career was cut short by the stress of trying to keep customers happy while running a railway held together with string and chewing gum.

Passengers are wrong to complain about paying more for a better service.

Thanks to our political masters, the railway was forced to discount prices through poor performance, itself the result of a lack of investment.

Once prices are discounted for a time, that price becomes the norm in the view of the customer.

Now those who have the least influence in the politically-dictated system, the ticket office staff, will get it in the neck from the "long-suffering" customer.

-Paul Forrest, Portslade