'There is not an inch of room'

Managers stood in today for striking guards on trains arriving at Waterloo, but their inexperience led to delays.

Civil servant Adrian McNeil had come in from Basingstoke because more trains were running than on previous strike days, but he said: "It was very, very packed. We are suffering while the union says one thing and South West Trains says another."

Financial consultant Sandra Smith, travelling in from Bournemouth, said: "It's the first time I've come into work on a strike day but I don't know if I'll be doing it again. It was horrendous."

Civil engineer Phil Ackers said: "Everybody was standing and there wasn't an inch of room. South West Trains are doing all they can but the union is persisting with strikes for political reasons rather than pay."

Outside the station on the picket line, RMT activist Greg Tucker, whose demotion over safety-related issues is one cause of the strikes alongside pay, warned of further disruption and said getting managers to stand in for guards was "unsafe".