Rail firms serving Sussex are cancelling 25 trains a day on average.

Figures released by the Government reveal 2,126 journeys scheduled by Southern Railway and 2,029 First Capital Connect trains were axed between April and September this year.

It means Southern cancels 13 services a day on average and First Capital Connect 12.

Both operators apologised for their performances but argued cancellations represented only a fraction of the total number of trains operated.

The Department for Transport can take action against operators when the figure for cancelled trains reaches 1.5%. Southern recorded a cancellation rate of 0.65% while First Capital Connect’s was 1.3%.

A spokesman for Southern said: “Although, as has been demonstrated, they form a very small percentage of the total number of trains run, it’s nevertheless still too high a figure for our passengers to have to cope with.

“Often, depending on the situation, one train, or part of the infrastructure that has a problem for whatever reason, can cause such a major problem on the network that many other trains can be cancelled which have nothing to do with the original incident or situation.”

A First Capital Connect spokesman said: “Many of our cancellations are double-counted. This is because the rules we are measured by treat a single service running, say, from Brighton to Bedford, as two journeys – one into London and another out of London.

“And even though we’re the only train company running services across central London, which is particularly prone to disruption, our performance is still the highest it has been for ten years, with 91.7% of our trains arriving within five minutes of their scheduled arrival time.

“However, any cancellation is one too many.

“That is why we are improving the reliability of our train fleet and working with Network Rail to further improve the track, signalling and other railway infrastructure.”

Shelley Atlas, of Brighton Line Commuters, said her members had not experienced many cancellations at peak time but that delays at rush hour could have affected trains later in the day. She said: “We have the odd delay but things are much better that they used to be.”