HUNDREDS of protestors packed a community centre to protest at plans by rail chiefs to slash scores of train services to rural communities.

Speaker after speaker at last night's meeting condemned the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) proposals, saying the cuts would leave travellers stranded and villages isolated.

There was standing room only as around 400 protestors joined MPs, county councillors and parish council leaders in Harrietsham village hall to denounce the SRA plans.

The meeting, organised by the Kent Association of Parish Councils, heard calls for the public to bombard rail bosses with protest letters as part of the campaign being mounted to get the SRA to do a u-turn.

Faversham and Mid-Kent MP Hugh Robertson (Con) said: "These proposals are wrong morally because they break undertakings given at the time of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and wrong because they take no account that the part of Kent being affected is a growth area."

He accused the SRA of using inaccurate passenger figures on which to base the service cuts.

Ashford MP Damian Green (Con) said: "The SRA is not supposed to be driving people into their cars and the effect of these proposals will do precisely that. Let's shower them (the SRA) with letters. Let's shower them with evidence to get these proposals changed.

Kent County Council leader Cllr Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart (Con) said Kent already had the worst train services in the country, saying a rail journey from London to Brighton took only 55 minutes while a similar length trip from the capital to Thanet took two hours.

"The very idea of reducing train services is frankly ridiculous," he said. "These proposals would mean the quality of life for the villages affected would be radically changed. We need better public transport not cuts," he added.