"IT'S going to break Redhill."
That was the message from angry commuters protesting against three years of service cuts after rail bosses told them there was no alternative.
From January, five of the nine morning peak services from Redhill and Reigate to London Bridge are being dropped or diverted, leaving around 3,000 commuters to cram onto other already overcrowded rush-hour services to the capital.
More than 100 people packed a meeting with Southern Railway called by Reigate, Redhill and District Railway Users Association.
Tensions ran high as Southern insisted there was no option but to axe London Bridge services while the station was being redeveloped.
And he said passengers would not be compensated.
Southern deputy managing director David Scorey said: "The timetable is so complicated we do not have a free hand to chop and change across the network as we see fit.
"Everything has to fit. It's the biggest most complex, most frustrating puzzle you will ever encounter."
He added: "We cannot get one more train on this network with the infrastructure we have.
"We need these schemes to get performance back to where it used to be."
Commuters argued that to get to London Bridge using trains diverted to Victoria and Blackfriars, they would have to fork out £1,000 more for a season ticket that included underground travel.
Southern said it would not compensate or reduce its fares.
Mr Scorey said: "This idea of selectively compensating is untenable."
Upon receiving a petition signed by 1,000 commuters, Reigate MP Crispin Blunt pressed for fares to be reduced while thousands endured "appalling conditions". He added he will write to the Office for Rail Regulation and the rail minister on the matter, adding: "I do not accept that you cannot address the fares question."
Following the meeting, commuter Trudy Curtis, from Earlswood, told the Mirror: "It's making me feel like I don't want to work in the city anymore.
"I feel I have to leave my job."
She added: "It's going to happen, it doesn't matter what we say.
"It's going to break Redhill.
"All this investment in the town but people don't want to live here."
Lisa Mitchell, from Redhill, said: "I don't know what I expected – they have given us some answers but they don't really help at all.
"We have got no option, they know there's nothing we can do.
"They have got us over a barrel."
Kate Butfield, also from Redhill, said the cuts were a "detriment" to commuters' lives.
