Frustrated commuters from Surbiton station could be whisked to Waterloo in slightly less cramped conditions.

South West Trains (SWT) has said it will invest in new carriages to make rush-hour trains longer, starting later this year.

The news follows the announcement of another year of above-inflation ticket price rises.

The train company also hit the headlines when research by social media monitors Brandwatch claimed more than a third of all tweets mentioning SWT are negative.

Recent complaints on Twitter concerned a train missing its turn towards Surbiton and ending up in Esher, as well as a week of signal problems which meant trains bound for Basingstoke did not call at Surbiton.

And overrunning engineering work led to cancelled trains at Chessington South today.

Twitter user missmaisy told SWT: “Chessington south trains cancelled again! I don't pay £1,500 a year to be an hour late for work”.

Chessington councillor Andrew Day said: “It is such a poor service and it always seems to me that whenever there is anything wrong it is always the first line for the trains to be cancelled.

“It is only two trains an hour even in rush hour.”

A South West Trains spokeswoman said: “Our Twitter feed has one of the highest followings of any train operator and we have worked hard to make it as informative and useful as possible.

“We are pleased that passengers feel they can let us have their feedback through Twitter and guarantee a quick and informative response.

“South West Trains has the fourth-lowest complaint rate of the 19 franchised train companies in the UK.”

She added: “In order to help limit future fare rises, the rail industry is working with the Government to find ways of providing services even more efficiently, building on the progress that has already been made.”

 

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