Man 'lost his job' after train cancellations three days in a row

A man claims he lost his job after Southern Rail train cancellations made him late three days in a row.

Lee Fenton was 30 minutes late on the first three days of a temporary placement with Merton Council after the 7.33am service from Coulsdon South was cancelled on Monday 23 May, Tuesday 24 May and Wednesday 25 May.

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He says he is now struggling to support his wife Charlotte and their eight-year-old son.

Speaking to the Croydon Advertiser, Mr Fenton said: "I lost my job because I was relying on the trains to get me to work and because they are continually cancelled or late I was late to work and they dismissed me.

"I am going to have to go back to searching for jobs, looking for anything I can because no one is supporting the family. It's huge amounts of stress for us."

The paper reports that an email sent from Merton Council to Headstart Employment stated that Lee's persistent lateness was part of the reason his placement was cancelled.

However, other members of staff had complained Mr Fenton smelt of smoke, and that he had made derogatory marks about his training.

A Southern Rail spokesman apologised for the disruption, and explained that Monday's 7.33am service, which leaves Three Bridges for London Victoria at 7.02am, was running half an hour late and so Southern decided to run the service straight from Gatwick to East Croydon, missing out Coulsdon South completely.

The train was then cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday completely following a signalling error on the Tuesday and a shortage of carriages on the Wednesday.

Speaking to the Metro, the spokesman said: 'We can assure your readers that there is no underlying reason for these cancellations which would make it a longer-term issue and we are investigating the root causes.

"The train ran on Thursday and Friday."