After pressure from commuters and a debate in the House of Commons, Southeastern has re-instated some of the carriages it slashed from some train services.

At the start of the year, the train company reduced the number of carriages on many rush hours services between Tunbridge Wells and Charing Cross, and between Maidstone East and Victoria.

The move sparked protests from commuters and Greg Clark (Con), MP for Tunbrdge Wells, raised their complaints with the Transport Minister in a House of Commons debate last week.

Now Southeastern has agreed to reinstate the carriages on some services from next Monday .

Mr Clark said: ”My constituents will be delighted at this U-turn – common sense has prevailed. However, why Southeastern ever decided to reduce the length of these overcrowded trains in the first place is beyond me.

“Following my speech in the House of Commons last Tuesday, I spoke to Southeastern’s managing director Charles Horton on Friday and reiterated my protest.

“I am glad that Mr Horton and his staff have finally listened. Although, he could have saved himself a lot of time and trouble if he had consulted with his passengers in the first place.”

Southeastern pointed out that it had made a total of 50 changes to services originally, and that some of these had resulted in longer trains being run, including the 21.09 Victoria to Ashford, up from four carriages to six, and the 19.24 Charing Cross to Ramsgate, up from seven carriages to eight.

These longer trains will continue.

Mr Clark said he was disappointed that Southeastern has refused to reverse its decision on the 0656 from Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross. He said: “I will continue to press for this to be reinstated to its original length as soon as possible. My constituents, who have suffered a massive increase in their rail fares, deserve a better service than this.”

The changes are as follows:

• 0720 Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross, was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 0740 Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross, was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 1741 Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells, was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 1828 Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells, was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 0713 Sevenoaks to Cannon Street was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 0745 Hayes to Cannon Street was 10 cars reduced to eight. Now 10 again

• 1656 Victoria to Ashford via Maidstone East, was six cars, reduced to four, now six again.