Revolt on commuter train

Furious passengers scored a victory for commuters when they staged a sit-in on a delayed train.

Their protest came when they were told to get off the train they were on and wait 30 minutes in the rain for another.

The South West Trains' 7.17pm from Waterloo, already almost 45 minutes late, was only three stations from its final destination of Shepperton in Surrey.

Passengers were informed it would terminate at the next stop, with a connecting service due four minutes later. But as the passengers got off the train at Fulwell last night they noticed the next train was not due for half an hour.

Kate Dobson, 27, said: " People were in dismay. Pretty much everybody had been experiencing delays on their way home.

"We had problems at Waterloo, which we understand, there will always be some problems.

"However when we got to Fulwell it was too much.

Everybody was furious. It's quite an exposed station. There is only a small shelter for about 10 people. The rain was hammering down, everybody was sick and tired and they were expecting us to wait. We were having none of it."

Following the lead of a number of passengers, all 40 or so commuters returned to the train and agreed to stand their ground. Miss Dobson. said: "We weren't satisfied with what was happening so we told the driver in quite calm terms and had a sit-in.

"He was on his own and everybody understood he was only being directed by control but everybody felt it wasn't a good service."

About 15 minutes later the passengers got what they wanted and the train they were on continued on its original journey.

Miss Dobson, who got off at the following station, Hampton, said: "It was really great that they changed their minds but the fact that they were prepared to leave us at the station was very annoying. We pay a lot of money to travel on these trains. It was very satisfying to stand up for your rights."

The train eventually arrived at its final destination at 8.53pm, almost one hour late.

A spokesman for South-West Trains apologised for the inconvenience and said they would look into why an inaccurate announcement was made on the train.