A COMMUTER has told how frustrations boiled over when angry train passengers struggled to get home and she has handed in her notice over the ongoing crisis.

Clare Weston from Glynde was among hundreds of angry travellers at Victoria Station who became increasingly angry at the delays they faced and she has handed in her notice as she is not getting home in time to see her baby son.

A large group began chanting for a train on Thursday night on the last day of the latest strike after becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of information available.

The incident started out as relatively light-hearted chanting but then someone swore at a woman leading the chants and a fight broke out which other people got involved in.

At one stage an elderly man was punched on the nose after a fight broke out and British Transport Police forced their way through to break it up.

A transport police spokesman confirmed they had been alerted to a "disturbance" on Platform 17 at the station shortly after 11pm.

A 26-year-old man and a 47-year-old man were both arrested on suspicion of affray.

Mrs Weston, 33, who had recently returned to work as a children’s clothes designer after maternity leave, witnessed the brawl and she has now handed in her notice because of the continued problems on the trains.

She said: “My employers have been really flexible and understanding but all this anxiety and distress is just too much.

"It is a very unsustainable way to get to work. Unreliable, expensive and just plain miserable."

Passengers are struggling to manage their daily lives as a result of the disruption and businesses have also been affected.

It has also emerged that some Sussex-based cancer sufferers are being forced to cancel hospital appointments in London.

Mrs Weston said when she arrived at Victoria at about 11pm there was already one overcrowded train on the platform heading to Sussex.

She said: “It was three carriages long and absolutely packed. "People were trying to push on to it and some started to panic.

“Once it had gone we waited around but there was no information available about the next train. People asked staff but they couldn’t tell us anything.

“That’s when people started saying enough is enough and started chanting. It was all good-humoured at first but there was a lot of commotion.

“There was one older man who was chanting and urging other people to join in and them someone smacked him on the nose and then a couple of other people got involved. It was quite frightening.”

Mrs Weston eventually got a train, which terminated at Three Bridges and then passengers had to wait for nearly two hours on two buses until drivers turned up.

She said: “I feel the constant disruption and problems are just too much now. I have a one-year-old son and I’d never get to see him.

“It’s just not worth it. This whole thing really needs to be sorted out.”

Southern rail services were severely disrupted yesterday because of an overtime ban by train drivers.

Members of Aslef on Southern are taking industrial action in a dispute over driver-only trains.

As well as the ban, they will be striking on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

It is expected that virtually no Southern services will run, causing huge problems for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

STRIKES NOW HIT PARTY BOOKINGS AND THE SICK

IN A further sign of the impact of the long-running dispute, a coffee house and restaurant in Brighton said London companies were cancelling Christmas party bookings because of the strikes.

Seaford mayor Lindsay Freeman said she has heard of a father missing the birth of his child and people looking to quit their London jobs.

One of the fallouts of the dispute has been cancer patients cancelling hospital appointments in London due to strike-hit Southern trains.

One patient from Burgess Hill told a national newspaper he was left with no choice but to pull out of a cancer drug trial because it was “impossible” to get to and from London.

Dawn Laker, who escorts her mother from Uckfield to the Royal Marsden Hospital for lung cancer treatment, said the action had placed extra stress on patients.

Councillor Freeman said people’s lives were being badly affected.

She said: “Only two years ago we were celebrating the 150th anniversary of the railway coming to Seaford but people are now really suffering.

“They can’t rely on the train to get to hospital, shopping or work. We have people here who are car-sharing from Seaford all the way to London. People are not able to live their lives.

“I used to like going to London for exhibitions but I can’t do that now.”

In Brighton, The New Club coffee house and restaurant said on Twitter: “We have companies coming from London for their Christmas parties and they’re cancelling because they can’t get here because of rail strikes.”