RAIL commuters in Sussex were the most affected by trains skipping stations.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - which is responsible for Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express services - had the most affected services of the country's providers, surging from 4,148 to 6,732, representing 2.2 per cent of services.

Southeastern had the second highest total - increasing from 1,651 to 2,804.

Some 24,349 services were partially cancelled nationally - including trains that did not serve every scheduled stop - in the second quarter of 2015/16.

This represents a 22% rise from 20,040 services in the same period of 2013/14.

A GTR spokesman said: "Skipping stations allows delayed trains to catch up and recover their slot in the timetable.

"It's never a decision taken lightly and only done at times of disruption so that fewer passengers are delayed overall - even though any train which skips a station counts as an immediate punctuality failure, so we have nothing to gain from this practice.

"These figures reflect how increased passenger demand and essential improvement work at London Bridge has made any problems that do occur on the Brighton Main Line and Thameslink route up to four times more difficult to recover from, as there is simply less room for the huge number of trains we run every day."

The Department for Transport issued a statement insisting that stations should only be missed "when there is no other solution" to prevent further delays.

It added: "We expect operators to get passengers where they need to go, on time and free of disruption."