Train scrum on the 3.30pm

Travellers were forced to scurry along the platform and compete with dozens of schoolchildren for seats.

Observer journalist, Russ Perkins, one of those in the scrum to catch Govia's South Central 15.30 to Eastbourne, said the locked doors confused passengers and could panic latecomers and those unable to move nimbly to the front four carriages for boarding.

He said: "Walking past four locked carriages is a long way, especially for the elderly, young children, the less mobile, or those carrying luggage, shopping, or babies.

"Apart from the inconvenience and fight to find a seat, there is the fear that the train will pull out before passengers can board it."

The train from Hastings is timed at the end of a school day to pick up pupils from St Richard's Catholic College returning home. It stops at Collington, Cooden, Normans Bay and Pevensey and Eastbourne.

The Observer asked if it was Govia's policy to lock out children on a school run train from half the carriages, perhaps to reduce vandalism and allow guards and ticket controllers to keep a better eye on pupils.

But a Govia spokesman said the lock-out was for safety reasons and with St Richard's co-operation.

He said: "We need to lock carriage doors to make the section of train in use shorter so children can alight safely at the shorter platforms along the route.

"An eight-carriage train is too long for the short platforms. Yet a four-carriage service for the 15.30 from Bexhill would be too short for the expected passenger load.

"Our policy is to lock the two rear carriages and leave six for passengers. The 15.30 from Bexhill is a one-off. We apologise if four carriages were locked by mistake."

The spokesman said he would put forward an Observer suggestion that passengers were warned to use the front four, or six, carriages only, using tannoys and printed notices.

He said: "I'm sure that can be arranged."

n GOVIA, co-owned by Keolis SA of France, whose major shareholder is the French State National Railway, is to lease a further 460 carriages within three years to ease overcrowding on its South-central routes.

Its new automatic selective door opening carriages are designed to cater for short platforms and can be opened only by the train triver.