News that Southern Railway (one of the privatised rail franchise holders) has opted to forget the facilities on its latest trains running on the Portsmouth to Brighton service should not come as a surprise. The company said trains would run in areas with short journeys where most people travel for less than half an hour. For the record (on a good day) a journey from Portsmouth to Brighton can take up to an hour-and-a-half. Southern Railways said the new trains, which should be introduced in December, have been designed to create more space for passengers (and boost profits).
Oddly enough this news has not gone down particularly well, with the Independent rail passenger watchdog Passenger Focus saying that the decision was a blow for passengers who were elderly, had medical conditions and travelled with children. The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' union (RMT) said on a journey of that length it was "unacceptable". Once we abandoned control of key elements of the public transport infrastructure to the whims of the market then this is part of the price that we all will begin to pay. Watch this space for future developments...
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