RAIL passengers using Hamp-shire's newest train station are being taken for a ride, according to angry passengers who have labelled the fare structure from Chandler's Ford "absurd".

According to passengers, it's cheaper to travel from Southampton's St Denys station to Romsey than it is to get to Chandler's Ford - even though Romsey is just over five miles further up line.

Another passenger has complained about being charged £4.20 to travel from Chandler's Ford to Southampton when the fare from Romsey is just £2.70.

The multi-million-pound service from Romsey to Totton opened less than three weeks ago.

Now passengers and a leading Eastleigh borough councillor are calling for the rail operators to get their act together.

Computer consultant Tim Starns said a ticket inspector tried to charge him and his wife, Helen, nearly £4 each to travel to Chandler's Ford from St Denys.

The pair opted for fares to Romsey - one stop further up the line - and it was nearly £1 cheaper.

He claimed the inspector did not even have a book of ticket prices. Instead, he had scribbled some useful numbers on a scrap of paper.

Mr Starnes, 37, of Bodycoats Road, said: "If you're trying to start a new service and you give a bad impression, you're not going to win customers back in a hurry."

Former Eastleigh mayor Councillor Godfrey Olson said he had been contacted by a disgruntled traveller who found it was cheaper to travel to Southampton from Romsey than it was from Chandler's Ford.

"Until these absurd pricing arrangements have changed, I and many others will not be using this service," the councillor was told.

A spokesman for SouthWest Trains told the Daily Echo they were now aware of "some anomalies". Part of the reason was because Wessex Trains set some fares and some were set by SouthWest Trains. But she added it would not be possible to do anything about the problem until September.

She said: "The earliest opportunity for looking at that is the September fares review. We'll be looking to see what we can do then. It's not like going into a shop and putting a new price tag on a carton of milk."

Promotional fares, she added, could be introduced in the meantime.

Cllr Olson, who is chairman of Eastleigh Council's Chandler's Ford and Hiltingbury Local Area Committee, said: "Surely there is someone in responsibility who can look at the issue and just see how ridiculous it is.

"This confusion needs to be sorted out very rapidly. If they are going to charge £4.20 to go from Chandler's Ford to Southampton this service could be a dead duck - and that's the last thing anybody wants when £2m is being expended on a rail station and a footbridge.

"I was excited when this new service was launched. Now I feel very flat about it, all because someone apparently can't get their act together."

Past vice-chairman of the Rail Users' Consultative Committee of Southern England, Alan Shotter, said: "This is absolutely ludicrous. It should and could be sorted out overnight."