HAS THE NANNY state gone completely bonkers? Or has it become so wet that it cannot say boo even to the most outrageous demand by special interest groups waving their capes of political correctness?

The case of the blackballed coaches is enough to make even the most long-suffering commuter splutter all the way to Waterloo. A few years ago, South West Trains ordered some new Juniper coaches that had an information display telling passengers, in letters 32mm high, where they were going. Unfortunately the Junipers proved unreliable, so SWT ordered some others, snazzy new Desiros from Germany. These haven’t all come on stream yet — so the company proposed retaining about six Junipers as back-up.

In the meantime, bureaucracy has intervened. The latest Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations specify that the letters on the display must be 35mm high, in case some poor dears with bad eyesight can’t see where they are. The company asked for an exemption — it wants to use the Junipers for only six months and only as back-up. It’s hardly worth spending three quarters of a million to alter the lettering.

Oh yes it is, says the disability lobby, which cannot resist a fight whenever it can pick one. It’s a matter of principle: no new letters, no new trains. And amazingly, the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) agreed. Well, perhaps not amazingly — such an acronym was bound to say that. The result? The Junipers in sidings, mums, grannies and others forced to stand all the way from Reading and a victory for blinkered extremists.

Not the first one, either — the Health and Safety Executive is expert at fencing out common sense. How about the new trains that are too long for Portchester station? What if the guard forgets to press the right button that prevents some of the electronic doors opening, a passenger gets out and falls on the track? Never mind that it was impossible to block the slam doors opening on the older trains but they were still allowed to stop. No matter that among the 229,000 passengers the yearly risk of a fatality is 0.012 per cent — one every 4,700 years. And there’s no spare taxpayer money to lengthen the platform.

The answer? Scrap Portchester station altogether. Luckily, HSE may not have its way — common sense may yet make a comeback. About time.