SOUTH West Trains has come under fire by a man travelling from Southampton after its weekend special offer fare to London was withdrawn on VJ Day.

The operator was criticised when the £20 offer was ditched for Saturday's 70th anniversary commemorations.

The company said it was a condition of the cut-price offer that it could be withdrawn on certain days to prevent overcrowding, highlighting other events taking place in and around the capital that may have seen passenger numbers reach potentially dangerous levels had the discount remained in place.

The £20 return fare represents a reduction of around two-thirds on several of the standard South West Trains tickets to and from London.

The decision not to run the special offer provoked anger, particularly after some drivers of black cabs in the capital waived fees for VJ Day veterans attending the day's memorial.

Tony Groves, who travelled from Southampton to London Waterloo station on Saturday, complained the restrictions were unclear on South West's website when viewed on a mobile phone.

He said on Twitter: ''Shame your mobile website is not quite so explicit about date restrictions for family offers as your full site.

''No mention of today's VJ Day restriction on mobile site but is there on full - made a £37 difference to family day out.''

Steve Hallett added, in a message to the train firm: ''Cancelling a promotion on VJ Day. You are the scum of the earth.''

South West Trains said it ''supported the Armed Forces community in a number of ways'', and said there were a number of events on its rail network on Saturday, including the England-France rugby match at Twickenham, which increased pressure on the service.

A company spokeswoman said: ''It's common during marketing promotions to have occasional days that are exempt from the offer and this can be due to a number of reasons. Our marketing of this particular offer clearly states any days that are not included in the promotion.

''Safety is our main priority. On days where there will be a large number of people using our network to attend special events, our experience is that encouraging even more people to travel through a price promotion can result in our services becoming severely overcrowded.

''We believe it makes more sense to encourage people to take advantage of our offers at slightly less busy times when they will be able to enjoy the experience more.''