HUNDREDS of people staged a protest last night over months of chaos on the Southern Rail network.

Rail users and commuters held placards with slogans including 'Southern Fail' and 'Let us get to work' at Seaford Train Station.

While the entire Southern network in Sussex has been blighted by poor service in recent months, Seaford has been particularly badly hit by the new emergency timetable.

The town has lost more than 85 per cent of its rail services, with season ticket holders forced to use on replacement bus services.

Southern introduced the new timetable to cope with the ongoing crisis, which it blames on a shortage of drivers and industrial action by rail unions.

But Matthew Lewis, a history teacher from Seaford, said it left him having to catch earlier trains to London and later trains back on the new schedule, which would cause him to miss both breakfast and dinner with his family.

He said: “Without any consultation, Southern have decided to virtually scrap a service that I and the 40,000 residents of Seaford and Newhaven are dependent on.

"I don't pay over £200 a month in order to take a bus."