About 400 people attended a meeting to voice their anger at plans to stop trains calling at Kent villages. The Strategic Rail Authority plans to stop some services calling at stations such as Charing and Harrietsham in a move to reduce journey times to London.
MPs, MEPs, councillors and rail authority representatives met locals at the meeting in Harrietsham on Thursday.
Organisers said they ended the meeting confident they could persuade the SRA to change its mind.
The SRA runs South Eastern Trains, which took over services in the South East on a temporary basis last year after Connex was stripped of its franchise.
It has said reducing the number of stops trains make during off-peak journeys will help cut journey times between major stations.
Paul Latham, of the SRA, said at the meeting: "We have been lobbied quite hard for faster journey times to key destinations in Kent.
"With the track infrastructure that we've got, in some cases the only way to achieve that is to have some services stopping at less places, lightly used stations."
Villagers told the meeting they would struggle to get to work or school, or be forced to use their cars, if trains did stop calling at their stations.
Confident of rethink
Damian Green, MP for Maidstone and shadow transport spokesman, said: "Several people have made the point to me from Charing, the village I live in, that a lot of children use the train to go to school.
"The morning journey may be in peak times, but the afternoon journey is in off-peak.
"If they cannot get back in the evening my guess is that many parents will start taking their children to school by car.
"So it would have the perverse effect of the SRA persuading people back into their cars - that cannot be sensible."
The meeting was organised by Tylden Reed, of the Kent Association of Parish Councils.
'We will win'
He told the BBC after the meeting he was confident of persuading rail chiefs to rethink their plans.
Mr Reed said: "Everyone on the top table knows where the residents and the rail users stand.
"We would much prefer to have the trains stopping, because they will still go past our stations.
"Surely the rail authority wants passengers?
"What they decide is entirely up to them, but I believe we will win this one."
Source
MPs, MEPs, councillors and rail authority representatives met locals at the meeting in Harrietsham on Thursday.
Organisers said they ended the meeting confident they could persuade the SRA to change its mind.
The SRA runs South Eastern Trains, which took over services in the South East on a temporary basis last year after Connex was stripped of its franchise.
It has said reducing the number of stops trains make during off-peak journeys will help cut journey times between major stations.
Paul Latham, of the SRA, said at the meeting: "We have been lobbied quite hard for faster journey times to key destinations in Kent.
"With the track infrastructure that we've got, in some cases the only way to achieve that is to have some services stopping at less places, lightly used stations."
Villagers told the meeting they would struggle to get to work or school, or be forced to use their cars, if trains did stop calling at their stations.
Confident of rethink
Damian Green, MP for Maidstone and shadow transport spokesman, said: "Several people have made the point to me from Charing, the village I live in, that a lot of children use the train to go to school.
"The morning journey may be in peak times, but the afternoon journey is in off-peak.
"If they cannot get back in the evening my guess is that many parents will start taking their children to school by car.
"So it would have the perverse effect of the SRA persuading people back into their cars - that cannot be sensible."
The meeting was organised by Tylden Reed, of the Kent Association of Parish Councils.
'We will win'
He told the BBC after the meeting he was confident of persuading rail chiefs to rethink their plans.
Mr Reed said: "Everyone on the top table knows where the residents and the rail users stand.
"We would much prefer to have the trains stopping, because they will still go past our stations.
"Surely the rail authority wants passengers?
"What they decide is entirely up to them, but I believe we will win this one."
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