A combination of staff sickness and driver training has led to more than 500 train services being cancelled over the past week.

Southern Railway has cancelled 534 of its 12,305 services across the network since December 3.

It said the reason was because, for the past nine weeks, it has been putting drivers through a training programme in readiness for changes at London Bridge station in January and a bout of sickness had meant fewer drivers were available.

But commuters are not pleased.

Eddie Vermeer, 39, of the Herontye area of East Grinstead, has commuted to London for four years.

He told The Argus: “I have missed trains and been late to work and late home.

“When the next train arrives you have everybody trying to squeeze on. It’s not nice.”

“I’m also missing my connections, which Southern doesn’t seem to be taking into account.

“There’s no way an organisation should cancel that many trains.

“The management has been weak and poor. They have lost control.”

Mr Vermeer said that in his four years of commuting he has noticed a drop in the level of service.

He has been active on Twitter, where Mid Sussex MP Sir Nicholas Soames has also been garnering details.

Mr Soames told The Argus: “When you consider the cost, commuters are entitled to have a damn near perfect service. They are absolutely at the limit of their patience. You would expect Southern to have enough spare drivers to cover.”

He is talking to MP Claire Perry, an under-secretary of state for transport, about the issue and may take a delegation to see her in January.

A Southern spokesman said: “We apologise for the higher than usual number of cancellations over the past few days.”

He said 26 drivers a day had been through “essential” training, which must finish by the time London Bridge re-opens in January.

He added: “We were coping well with this until recently, when a higher than usual level of sickness resulted in some shortages of drivers, although we did take some drivers off the training to help with cover.

“This has resulted in some gaps in crew cover, leading to some cancelled trains.

“We can assure our passengers that this is a temporary glitch and hope that they bear with us while we get through this period.”

Southern said passengers with advance tickets can use them on the next available specific train booked or get a full refund without an administration charge.

Those delayed by 30 minutes or more can claim using Delay Repay at www.southernrailway.com/delayrepay.