I read with interest and considerable sympathy Lisa Sevell's account (Letters, March 13) of the appalling disruption she has suffered on her train journeys to and from London.

I can confirm from my own experiences that the standard of service has been truly dreadful.

I became so frustrated by it that at the beginning of February I started keeping a diary of my experiences.

As well as noting difficulties on trains I travelled on, I also recorded disruption to other services running at around the same time and services that were shown as being disrupted on the South Central website.

In the four working weeks of February, I recorded 107 trains on the Sussex Coast route as being cancelled, late by over ten minutes or what South Central call "short formed", meaning they ran with less than the required number of coaches.

Lisa is also absolutely right to highlight the complete lack of information provided to customers by South Central's employees.

With one or two notable exceptions, their attitude varies between sullen indifference and down right rudeness.

Like Lisa, I understand and accept that even in the best run organisation things will go wrong from time to time but may I suggest that 107 instances of disruption in a month is wholly unacceptable and a damning indictment of South Central's attitude to customer service?

In any other service industry they would have been thrown out of business years ago but, as they have a near monopoly, we have little alternative other than to use their trains.

All these incidents have a fundamentally negative effect on our business and social lives.

If they occur on the journey up to London in the morning, they result in our being late for work and missing important business commitments. When they occur in the evening, they result in a loss of quality time with our family and friends.

Am I alone in believing there is an urgent need for a radical improvement in the quality of service and that if South Central's managers cannot or will not deliver it they should quickly find themselves at the back of an unemployment benefit queue?

-Trevor J. Millington, Brighton