Coulsdon rail commuters are suffering conditions akin to an infamous prisoner of war camp, a commentator has claimed.

Andrew Gilligan, who famously alleged the Government ‘sexed up’ the case for the Iraq war in 2003, compared packed carriages to the Black Hole of Calcutta, a dungeon in which British prisoners died of suffocation, heat exhaustion and crushing in 1756.

He said £17bn earmarked for a new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham should instead be used to combat similar problems in commuter hubs.

Writing in the Telegraph last week, Mr Gilligan said: “I am horrified that we are proposing to spend it all on a few hundred thousand travellers who already have an excellent inter-city link – a link upgraded, at vast public expense, only five years ago.

“Britain's real public transport need is not to take 30 minutes off the journey from London to Birmingham.

"It is the often desperate state of the services that most of us actually use: local buses, and the black-hole-of-Coulsdon conditions on the commuter lines.”

Conservative Croydon South MP Richard Ottaway, whose party is backing high speed rail to cut flights from Heathrow, said the comparison was “absolute nonsense”.

He said: “I don’t recognise the problem. Of course we get crowding during the rush hour, which is a sign of people wanting to use the service, and it will ever be thus.

“I have longed argued for more rolling stock and more capacity, particularly in the south of the borough, and to a degree that has been addressed.

“It’s absolute rubbish to compare it to the Black Hole of Calcutta.”

Mr Ottaway said money should be spent on the new line as well as improving commuter services.

Plans for the new high speed link, which will feature trains travelling at up to 250mph, were announced by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis on March 11.

Work is unlikely to begin on the proposed route until 2017, with the Conservatives promising to begin building two years earlier if they are elected in May.