THE world's oldest pier train is set to hit the buffers if the Hythe Ferry is axed.

Concerned staff working on the train have now climbed aboard the Daily Echo's campaign to save the historic service.

The route is under threat after ferry bosses were presented with a 740 per cent rise in business rates which will eventually cost the heavily subsidised service thousands of extra pounds.

White Horse Ferries say they cannot afford to pay the spiralling bills and so staff inevitably stand to lose their jobs.

Ian Locker, one of three Hythe Pier train drivers, pictured above, told the Daily Echo: "I enjoy the job and like the fact that it is local. I can cycle to work and it is a good means of employment for a lot of local people.

"In many ways driving the train is a brilliant little job. The people going over for the day are very relaxed and even with the commuters there is never any aggro. It is not so good in the winter though!

"For me it is a convenient way of getting to Southampton and back and it is my livelihood."

The pier, both a tourist attraction and commuter route linking the New Forest to the city's Town Quay, won a place in the prestigious Guinness Book of World Records in 1999.

The world's oldest pier train was built during the First World War and brought into use in Hythe in July 1922.

Although records mention the ferry service itself as far back as 1575, the pier was not built until 1879/1880 and the electric tramway was introduced more than 40 years later.

PIER TRAIN FACTFILE:

Three drivers are employed to operate the three-carriage electric train, which was originally battery driven.

The track runs the length of the historic pier which itself measures 2,100 feet.

It is the seventh longest pier in the country.

King George VI rode the pier in the train prior to D-Day in 1944. A commemorative plaque marking the place where the King sat was removed years later by an unscrupulous souvenir hunter.