I completely support Stephen Pullinger's comments regarding the current state of the service offered by South Central trains (Letters, December 12).

We have to suffer broken-down rolling stock, filthy and locked toilets and lack of heating on these trains.

I and my fellow commuters, all of whom have good jobs in occupations such as media, arts, science and antiques, lead very stressful working lives and look forward to relaxing with one another on the way home.

Our carriage has become one big happy family in which we attend social events at each other's homes.

The annual Christmas party on the 6.08pm Victoria to Brighton service is organised by a group of dedicated volunteers.

We have to find some "wartime spirit" to enable us to cope with the atrocious conditions in which we are forced to travel.

This is being made intolerable by the South Central staff and British Transport Police, not to mention the BBC who, last Wednesday night, sent a camera crew and whipped the carriage into a frenzy to enable them to get some news footage so they could portray us as a bunch of maniacs.

Leave us alone and let us get on with our lives, for which we have to be pay £3,000 a year.

-Paul Lovell, Lansdowne Place, Hove