Coastway trains passing Hove station on Sunday were so packed they reminded me of the rush hour on the London underground.

Returning to Hove station on the London to Portsmouth train we had to fight to get on the platform. Our carriage was already filled with female students from Germany. A cyclist had her bike jammed round her neck.

How can such an out of date, disjointed railway as the coastway route from Weymouth to Ashford International ease road gridlock? It must be hell to commute.

Railway companies receive huge subsidies yet do nothing to update the totally inadequate branch line networks. Privatisation was the world's greatest railway burglary and now franchises are up for grabs.

Is it not pay back time?

-John Stanaway, Lorna Road, Hove