Left stranded by Southern Rail

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On December 1, I went to Littlehampton station to catch the 18.14 train to Hove.

The ticket office was closed and I tried three times to buy a ticket from the machine without success.

The train was not on the board and, after 10 minutes, I discovered it was cancelled, which meant having to travel to Barnham to board a service. When arriving at Hove for the return journey, I found the toilets and waiting room locked and the 22.52 service due to arrive at 23.12. It then vanished from the board to be replaced by the 16.52 due to arrive at 17.50 – the time now was 23.05.

The Portsmouth service arrived at 23.12 but upon boarding discovered it was going to non-stop to Ford, leaving about 50 customers waiting in the freezing cold for a service to Worthing/Littlehampton.

There were no staff and no information as to when a service would arrive. At 23.35 we gave up and got a taxi.

While the cause of the disruption was not the fault of Southern, the lack of facilities and information certainly was.

A company that treats customers like this should be stripped of its franchise.

Michael Moore

Norfolk Road

Littlehampton

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