I have just spent the past 20 consecutive (well, almost) weekdays travelling from Warminster to Southampton General Hospital for Radiotherapy treatment. It has been one of the most miserable, soul destroying experiences of my life.

I am not talking about the superb, professional service I got at the hospital, with ultra modern equipment – I am talking about the abysmal GWR excuse for a rail service on the Portsmouth to Cardiff route.

It is difficult to know where to start - or finish:

The rolling stock is well past its sell by date – but I don’t think anyone would take it as a gift, let alone part with good money for it.  The so-called internal “refresh” is best likened to “polishing a t**d” – from a distance it doesn’t look too bad, on slightly closer inspection it is a complete waste of money. These seats are a complete disaster, they seem to have taken the original “cushions”  and just recovered them with new fabric. Even the new covers look as though they were made by someone who didn’t know a sewing machine from a sausage filling machine. The old filling inside the new covers has long since collapsed and has no cushioning effect whatsoever.

Many of the windows have broken down and are full of condensation - did they ever replace them anyway ?

The trains themselves are just not long enough: They are grossly overcrowded for much of the time - especially when there is a cruise ship (or 2) in.  I only travelled once on a five car train, the vast majority of trains are 3 car with the odd 2 car thrown in to liven up the platform scrums ! How much money was wasted lengthening platforms to 5 cars !!! Time keeping was just about acceptable (usually within 10 mins) – if the train turned up at all. I was lucky in only having one cancellation – but there were plenty on the boards around me.

I often used the “Hampshire 6” as far Salisbury on the return trip, just to avoid GWR – bliss ! How old are SWRs’ 158s ? The seats are still fabulous – the cushions still live up to that description.

I just hope my treatment is a success – I’m not sure if I could take that experience again !

(It took me a long time to get photos of those empty seats)