Rustington student counts the cost of rail pass confusion

Mary-Lou Arnold, of Parham Close, is in her final year at the University of Brighton, studying to become a nurse.

As part of her course, the 20-year-old regularly has to commute from Angmering railway station to Worthing, so she can carry out her trainee work at Worthing Hospital.

However, when she went in for her first shift at the hospital last Wednesday (January 2), after her New Year break, she was shocked to discover that the student card she had been using to purchase her Worthing and Brighton Unizone tickets was no longer valid.

The guards at the village station refused to accept Mary-Lou’s University of Brighton student card and her Young Persons’ Railcard for the discounted rate – despite the fact that only three weeks previously it had been perfectly acceptable to use to buy the Unizone tickets.

Last week they claimed that only an accredited National Union of Students (NUS) card could be used.

Mary-Lou’s mother, Elizabeth, said: “She was completely shocked. None of us could understand why they weren’t accepting her cards anymore.

“There was absolutely no warning that this would be changing. She’s unemployed, so she needs to be very careful with the money she spends.”

Mary-Lou looks set to now spend around £200 for the combined monthly tickets – a hike of almost £80 – while she waits for her new NUS card.

A Southern Rail spokesman admitted staff at Angmering had been accepting the wrong form of identification – the Young Persons’ Railcard.

He apologised for any confusion, adding staff had been re-briefed to issue a Unizone ticket only after seeing an in-date NUS card.