RAIL commuters fed up with waiting for delayed connections boarded an express and forced the driver to stop where they wanted.
The spontaneous outbreak of passenger power occurred at Haywards Heath, in the Sussex commuter belt, where 20 well-dressed but weary homeward travellers had been stranded for more than an hour.
They had been left waiting by cancellations and hold-ups.
When the 9.20pm service to Brighton pulled in, temptation proved too great.
The group climbed into a carriage and wedged their feet in the automatic doors to stop them closing.
This prevented the Connex South Central train from moving off. When the driver came to investigate, the protesters told him they would continue to block the doors until he agreed to make unscheduled halts at the five stations before Brighton.
Eventually he agreed, despite complaints from other passengers angry that the additional stops would further extend a journey already 30 minutes behind time.
Simon Copeland, 32, who was on the train, said: "The whole thing was a real fiasco and Connex did nothing about it. These pinstripe-suited types stuck their feet in the doors and refused to budge.
"At first, the driver told them it was a fast service, and that was that. But he returned to his cab, came back and gave in. We ended up stopping everywhere and got to Brighton nearly an hour late."
Connex said the driver agreed to make the stops after "consulting with supervisors". But the company declined to say how it would have dealt with the protesters if their demand had been refused.
A spokesman said: "We decided to help the passengers because they had been waiting at Haywards Heath for a long time."
He said of the protesters' move: "We don't encourage this type of action but we understood their chagrin.
"We pleased one group of customers by making it a stopping train, but disgruntled others by slowing them down. We were in a no-win situation."
