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Two pictures of South West Train's 158 2 coach diesel trains calling at intermediate stations on a single line.

The left picture shows a station where a SWT 158 calls 4 times every hour on Monday to Friday.

The right picture shows a station where a SWT 158 calls just once a day on Monday to Friday.

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The town served by the station shown in the left picture has a population of around 14500, and is limited in its further growth by the close proximity of areas of natural beauty in which there are severe development restrictions.

The town served by the station shown in the right picture has a population of around 24000, and is growing rapidly - the population is expected to grow by around 2500 purely based on existing homes that are under construction.

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There are no plans for major new employment close to the station shown in the left picture.

600 Jobs are being transferred to a site about 500 yards from the station shown in the right picture.

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Note the third rail on the left picture.

There is no third rail on the right picture.  We are told about a shortage of diesel trains, but I'll suggest to you that there's one available when SWT start using an electric train on the line shown in the left picture. It is absurd to electify a railway and run diesel trains on it all week.

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To redress the balance, the train on the picture in the left does go on to serve the Isle of Wight ferry, which accounts for about 220 journeys each way a day - that's somewhere between 12 and 15 passengers per train.   The train pictured on the right also provides the rail link between some very large centres with major traffic flows.

Also to redress the balance, the train on the left is augmented by an electric train calling every 15 minutes at the weekend, and the train on the right is augmented by 3 extra calls per day by a train in FGW colours ... which also calls 4 times on Saturday and 3 times on Sunday.