Unreliable services were high on the list of commuters' concerns

The chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), Richard Bowker, was told about unsafe rail stations and unreliable services.

More than 4,000 passengers travel each day to London from Tunbridge Wells, High Brooms and Paddock Wood.

Tunbridge Wells MP Archie Norman, who was at the meeting, said it was frank and honest.

He said: "People are concerned about what's going to happen in the next 18 months before the Connex franchise is re-let and he dealt with those questions.

"He hasn't promised us the impossible or the undeliverable and has been quite frank about what can be done and what can't be done.

We've got �2bn being spent on brand new trains across the whole of the south of England Richard Bowker, SRA chairman

"I think the end result is that he has gone away with a pretty strong impression of what people feel."

Before the meeting, Mr Bowker said: "We've got �2bn being spent on brand new trains across the whole of the south of England and many of the first ones are arriving and have arrived here in Kent.

"�1bn is being spent on a power supply system and there are enormous amounts of investment being made - things are turning around and they are improving."

In June, the Strategic Rail Authority announced that it was terminating Connex's South Eastern franchise which had been due to run until 2006.

The regulator the Strategic Rail Authority said poor financial management was to blame.