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We are very concerned that the quality of the trains operating between London Waterloo and Portsmouth by South West Trains (SWT) has been downgraded with "blue" class 450 trains replacing the "white" class 444 units which were introduced as recently as 2004.
The "blue" trains are designed for suburban journeys typically lasting no more than 1 hour and have five seats per row as opposed to four in the "white" units. Legroom is much reduced in the "blue" trains and the overall result when these trains are used on longer journeys, such as Portsmouth-Waterloo, is that passengers complain of cramped conditions and backache. Other drawbacks of the "blue" trains include a lack of tables, no power supplies for laptop computers etc., narrow corridors which have put an end to the at-seat refreshment trolleys, external doors which open directly into the seating areas letting a blast of cold air to enter the train at stations.
The excuse offered by SWT relates to overcrowding, yet no overcrowding occurs south of Guildford. Reconstructing diagrams for the entire day on transparently hollow grounds is only totally unconvincing. The changes will discourage rail travel between South Hampshire and the capital as travellers revert to their more comfortable cars with a resulting loss of revenue for the SWT.
The real reason for these changes is, of course, cost cutting and is a result of the new franchise which was awarded to South West Trains for a 10 year period starting in February 2007. SWT will have to pay a substantial premium to the Department for Transport instead of receiving a large subsidy. As a result, a batch of quality long-distance trains has been put into storage and our "white" trains moved to the Bournemouth line as a back-fill.
In 2004, "white" Class 444 was launched with much celebration - 'Portsmouth's New Trains'. Now, it seems, as a consequence of alterations elsewhere, Portsmouth is to relinquish its inheritance, in order to serve Bournemouth's need. This is grossly unfair and is indeed a betrayal of trust we placed in SWT's promise of two years ago.
We have written to SWT management and, so far, have received unsatisfactory replies. We have lobbied MPs, City Council officials and the Rail Passengers' Council and we are working with the recently formed No450 Campaign which is led by David Habershon of Emsworth.
Being 74 miles from London, Portsmouth is not a suburban outpost. Requiring passengers to travel such a distance in cramped accommodation at any time of day is a gross discourtesy. The Portsmouth line deserves a standard of service throughout the day equal in quality to that offered to Southampton and Bournemouth, along with every other coastal destination in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire.
During the 1990s, Network South East found it possible to offer both Bournemouth and Portsmouth high quality Class 442 trains on principal services from a pool of only 24 units. With 45 of the Class 444 trains, it is surely possible to offer a high quality accommodation on all fast services on both the Bournemouth and Portsmouth lines.
The No450 campaign has a Web site at www.no450.co.uk and we urge readers to sign the on-line petition there.