Happy New Year and here we go again.

Yes, it’s a new year but the same old Southern Railway.

We went on our first day back to work after the Christmas break to find the 6.40am train to London Victoria was cancelled. We took the next, slower train at 6.50am.

Unfortunately the additional carriages due to be added at Three Bridges were not.

Before we had left Three Bridges and hit East Croydon, the train was a cattle truck, with more passengers squeezing on at Clapham Junction.

To add insult to injury we have seen our monthly rail ticket hiked up in price, too. It is absolutely shameful.

We need political action on rip-off train operators and, above all, we need to see the back of Southern Railway in 2014.

Gary Smith and Charlotte Gregory, Grand Avenue, Hove

It is not surprising that commuters are concerned about this month’s Brighton to London season ticket price rise (The Argus, January 3).

Even though it is less than the 5.1% maximum the Government would have allowed, it still means that since 2010 there has been a 17% increase in season ticket costs.

With changing work patterns, what would help many local commuters is the special season ticket for part-time workers.

It is now more than two years since Southern’s launch at Lewes Station of its experiment with “smart card” technology which could make a part-time season ticket possible.

But it seems there is still no definite date for the very limited trial of its part-time “Flexi Ticket” on the Brighton to Victoria route and no real prospect of a proper part-timer scheme being in place in the near future.

Southern Railway should be lobbying the Department for Transport now for an agreement to speed up this trial and give real help to at least some of those commuters it relies on for so much of its income.

Purna Sen, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion