RAIL passengers and politicians have demanded an end to the stalemate between Southern rail and unions as strikes blight Sussex's transport network again today.

Passengers are due to suffer nine more strike days before the end of the month - plus another eight in January - with no resolution in sight with trains to Seaford cancelled until further notice.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas yesterday tabled an urgent question in parliament demanding "urgent action" on our railways with the support of fellow MPs including Hove's Peter Kyle and Lewes's Maria Caulfield - who covers Seaford.

Ironically, Ms Lucas said she had to "battle rail chaos" to get to the House of Commons to ask her urgent questions as trains were severely disrupted yesterday afternoon because of a broken rail between Gatwick and East Croydon blocking London-bound lines.

Ms Lucas said: "This is a whole new level of chaos in a service that’s been deteriorating ever since GTR took on the contract.

“Thousands of people are profoundly affected by this crisis - people are losing jobs, families are not seeing each other. Indeed I know I am not the only MP to have heard about my constituency’s economy being undermined by the turmoil.

“It’s time for the Department for Transport to take back direct control. If the Government was more directly accountable over rail services then we could, at the very least, ask them why the Driver Only Operation deal done in Scotland can’t be done here.

“It’s time to for both urgent action to unravel the serious problems we’re facing this week, and long term investment in our railways to ensure that they are fit for the future.”

RMT members on Southern will strike for three days from today and the network will also be hit by an overtime ban by drivers' union Aslef ahead of strikes later in December and the new year.

Following the announcement that services between Seaford and Lewes will stop running “until further notice”.

Conservative Maria Caulfield added: "I want answers as to what the Government is going to do on this and no more excuses, we need the Government to take action and step in to resolve these issues once and for all.”

However rail minister Paul Maynard refused to commit to intervening to end the row – instead blaming the unions despite evidence that Southern has been offering customers a poor service for more than two years – far longer than the industrial dispute.

With guards planning more strikes the week before Christmas and in January and drivers also threatening to walk out and refuse overtime - commuters face neverending misery as all sides refuse to back down.

Conductors union RMT yesterday blamed the government and Chris Grayling for not stepping in to end the row.

Southern tried to absolve themselves of any responsibility - saying 99 per cent of RMT members had signed new contracts and “at some point in the new year” they will switch over to the new roles – insisting guards would have five years guaranteed job security.

COMMUTER ANGER AS RAIL TRAVEL ORDEAL CONTINUES

FOR 15-year-old Matthew Collett-Leslie Southern is holding back his education.

Like many of the 300,000 passengers who use Southern’s services every day Matthew fears the chaos on the rails is having a significant impact on his life.

Every day across Sussex business meetings are cancelled, parents miss their children’s bedtimes, personal lives are shattered and business deals are put on hold – due to the train misery.

Matthew, who is preparing for his GCSEs fears it could cost him his education. But despite his tender years he has the maturity to be one of the only people to come up with a practical solution.

The teenager, who travels from his home in St Leonards to Seaford Community College on Southern trains – at a cost of £12.90 for his child ticket – said: “Over the next two weeks at school I have my mock exams and they are quite important.

"On the strike dates I am going to be late to school and that will of course affect my education, my grades and my school life.

“I already have the stress of the exams and now this on top. I emailed RMT to let them know how this will affect me but they haven’t replied or acknowledged it whatsoever.

"This is getting ridiculous now – it needs to stop. Why don’t RMT say to Southern ‘how about a trial for a month and if it works fair enough but if it doesn’t work then go back to the old ways?’

"That is a much better solution than affecting not just my life but everyone else’s.

“Some people are quitting work because of this and it’s unfair on everyone.”

Overcrowded trains are a daily occurrence – and, as even the rail minister agreed, the disruptions have “affected passengers for far too long”.

Brighton commuter John Paul Chappel told The Argus he was forced to spend one journey home in the toilet.

He said: “The massively overcrowded and delayed 5.06pm service from Victoria to Brighton made an unscheduled stop at Three Bridges to take on more passengers.

"There was nowhere for them to go and, after pleas to move down, I ended up spending the rest of the journey sitting in the toilet.

"So this is rail travel in 2016 and kind of sums up Southern Railways’ attitude towards the people it calls, but doesn’t treat as, customers.”

While passengers struggle to juggle their lives around the chaos, the unions, Southern and the Government seem more concerned about passing the buck.

None of them could predict when the end would be in sight.

The RMT said that they were the only group involved to have accepted Brighton and Hove Albion’s offer to broker talks – which Southern and the Government refused to respond to.

During yesterday’s parliamentary debate Hove MP Peter Kyle pointed out that on a no-strike day yesterday the service was still a “complete shambles” and called for the rail minister to “get to his feet and do whatever it takes” to improve this service.

Rail Minister Paul Maynard accepted it was happening too often and called on GTR and Southern to address the issues – but justified their failings saying they were unable to resolve the other issues with the service while “unwarranted industrial action” continued.

Mr Maynard said the problems with Southern were “politically motivated”, suggesting the best thing Ms Lucas could do was “talk to her friend in the RMT”.

Mr Maynard added “union leaders have even described this action as ‘carrying on Fidel’s work’.

“This will be of no comfort to passengers who just want to get to work.”

Meanwhile, 300,000 Southern passengers will struggle to get to work today – and for the foreseeable future.

BUSES TO REPLACE STRIKE-HIT TRAINS

ALL TRAIN services between Lewes and Seaford have been cancelled.

Southern announced that bus services will operate between Seaford, Bishopstone, Newhaven Harbour, Newhaven Town, Southease and Lewes until further notice as conductors go on strike.

MP Maria Caulfield said: “The decision by Southern to offer no service at all on strike days to all of the stations in my constituency is unacceptable.

"There are also thousands of people in Seaford, Southease, Bishopstone and Newhaven in my constituency with no rail service on any days between now and mid-January.

"This is completely unacceptable for my constituents, the businesses in my towns and those who are at risk of losing their jobs because we are being held hostage in Sussex by the behaviour and actions of Southern Rail, the RMT and Aslef unions, and the Government.

"Other services will be severely reduced and very busy and Southern warned passengers to “avoid peak times or on the last service of the day”.

If Aslef’s strikes go ahead next Tuesday there will be no trains at all across the whole Southern network.

Southern director Alex Foulds said: “There will be severe and significant disruption on our network from Tuesday and customers are advised that stations will be incredibly busy.

“If passengers can make alternative travel arrangements they should, and if they don’t have to travel they shouldn’t.

"If the drivers’ strikes go ahead, there will be no services on Southern and customers should not attempt to travel.”

PLANS TO WEAKEN NETWORK RAIL

NETWORK Rail will be stripped of its control over Britain’s train tracks and power will be handed to operators in the biggest shake-up of the railways for decades, the Government is to announce.

In an attempt to end delays and reduce fares, Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, will say he wants the publicly owned Network Rail to share responsibility for running the tracks with private train operators.

But the announcement has sparked fears that failing operator Southern could be granted control of its own infrastructure and that this could spark further industrial disputes over safety fears.

The RMT and Aslef unions have already pledged to fight any move to a privatised Network Rail.

An RMT spokesman said: “If Southern are put in charge of infrastructure there will be a tragedy.

“It would be criminal. There will be lethal consequences.”

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the proposals represented “a return to one of the darkest times in the history of Britain’s railways”.

He added: “The failures and tragedies of the Railtrack era remind us that infrastructure should never be run for profit.”