THE French footballer Eric Cantona famously described travelling on the Eurostar as the chance "to breathe".

The invigorating sense of the freedom provided by rail travel must seem a bad joke to Sussex commuters.

Faces crammed into ageing carriages, nasal-voiced delay announcements, faces buried in newspaper crosswords - it's an unpleasant but necessary daily part of life for thousands.

The 54-mile trip from Brighton to London must seem an endless ordeal, particularly with regular delays and cancellations.

Nothing ever changes, it seems - until now.

Govia, the company which owns Thameslink, has put in a £1.5 billion bid to take over Connex South-Central's franchise.

It is promising to spend £600 million to upgrade the Brighton line, £800 million on new trains and to take on 160 extra staff, who will be better trained.

Connex is fighting back with a £1.4 billion rival bid.

Govia has announced it wants to rename the network the New Southern Railway, a nostalgic reference to the great age of train travel last century, evoking an image of the famous Brighton Belle speeding through the countryside.

Underlying its bid is a change in the entire culture of commuting, making a necessary burden less

onerous.

The cost of peak-time tickets, it claims, will increase by one per cent less than inflation, while improvements occur to every aspect of the service.

Govia spokesman Martin Walter said: "All 158 stations on the network will be updated. They will become a hub of the community, not just somewhere people go to catch a train.

"They should have supermarkets, newsagents and cafes in or around them, making them somewhere you'd want to go.

"We want them to become more pleasant places. The effect we will give is of seamless travel."

Govia owns, among other transport companies, Brighton and Hove Buses. The hope is to integrate all forms of public transport so journeys coincide, reducing waiting on the platform.

The company is offering considerable reductions in travel times between London and Sussex towns through engineering improvements.

These are: Brighton five minutes, Eastbourne seven minutes, Hove nine minutes, Worthing 15 minutes and Chichester 23 minutes.

Mr Walter added: "It's a huge change. We have got to have the infrastructure right. We have worked hard on our bid. The subtitle for the New Southern Railway will be 'The Welcoming Network'. Using our service will be a very different experience."

The company intends forming a stakeholder board which will be a monitoring, advisory and consultative forum.

This will include local authorities, unions and customers who will help to develop plans.

Since British Rail was privatised in 1996, the number of people using Connex South Central has increased by 25 per cent.

Yet still much of the rolling stock dates back to the Sixties, while the rail infrastructure is Victorian.

David Ewart, Connex SouthCentral's media relations manager, is optimistic that, if the franchise is retained, life will improve beyond recognition for users.

He said: "We are talking about bringing a revolution in rail service and quality of service to London and the South East.

"If we are successful in winning the franchise, which will run from the end of this year to 2015 or 2020, we will replace all the slam-door rolling stock by the end of 2003.

"We will create a new main line from Uckfield to Lewes by electrifying it and reinstating the link."

The company promises to improve lines from

London to Brighton and Littlehampton and increase capacity to meet growing demand.

Another innovation is to provide "easy access" stations, putting at least one within a 15-minute drive of every home in Sussex.

These will have better security, parking and other facilities. Longer trains will be able to take more passengers in a single journey, reducing platform congestion.

Mr Ewart said: "We are confident that our franchise plans are robust and will transform travel for people throughout south-east

England.

"We are basically running a service at the moment which relies on rolling stock from the

Sixties and an infrastructure from Victorian times. With the increase in passengers since privatisation that's no good.

"There is every indication it will continue to grow. We already have 240 new coaches on order."

So both companies say the service offered will improve life for users. What do they think?

Shelley Atlas, chairman of Brighton Line Commuters, said: "What we want more than anything else is a good service. The priority must be to make the stations nicer places.

"You need to have more staff available to deal with inquiries so, if there's a problem, we know what is going on. At the moment that is not happening.

"We get very fed up with what's going on. Companies make big promises when the franchise is up for renewal. It's like political parties in the run up to an election."

The Strategic Rail Authority will announce the winner of the franchise during the summer.

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