Samantha Hodder of Southern claims Harold Parkin's preference for slam-door trains "is a matter of personal taste and our feedback
so far suggests he is in a minority" (Letters, November 1).
But most regular train users I know and some Southern staff
prefer to travel or work on a comfortable, reliable slam-door train than an unreliable and uncomfortable Electrostar with its many faults.
It's not the fact that we have new trains which people dislike because this was inevitable. It's the choice of train and the way they are operated.
For example, 18 months after they were first introduced, many trains are still running without working toilets despite promises that this was only a short-term problem.
I know Southern inherited the order for the Electrostars and with
it the need for power upgrades and depot refurbishments, which appears to be due to a lack of forward planning, but surely they did not have to accept the full order. They could have provided us with better trains and perhaps we would have suffered less inconvenience from the protracted period of introduction.
South West Trains has chosen the Class 444 trains, which are well designed to carry large numbers of people in comfort, for some routes.
In one carriage they have a glass compartment in which the conductor sits and monitors a CCTV screen.
He is thus highly visible, which deters on-train vandalism, and very accessible, unlike the Electrostars where, if you need the conductor, you have to search the train hoping he or she is checking tickets,
otherwise they are behind a solid windowless door to the rear driver's cab and very difficult to contact.
Mr LH Aslett,
-Southwick
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