Rail company Connex has come up with a new excuse for cancelling trains - the half-term school holidays.

The Sussex train operator has been forced to cancel half its trains on the Uckfield to London line because drivers want to spend time at home with their children.

Instead of an hourly service on the line from Sussex through Kent to London this week, it is running one train every two hours. Rush-hour trains have been cancelled and departure times altered.

The troubled line, which is served by diesel trains, is frequently hit by staff shortages. It needs specialised drivers with dual-traction knowledge who can drive diesel trains on electrified tracks in the London area.

Wealden MP Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith described the excuse for cancellations as "rather pathetic". The MP called for the situation to be sorted out as soon as possible. He said the new Strategic Rail Authority should give a rail company a 20-year franchise to operate the line so the required modernisation can be carried out.

The line is one of the few non-electrified lines in South-East England. There are plans to electrify it and possibly re-open the link to Lewes, which would give commuters another route to London.

Dave Ewart, media relations manager for Connex said: "To provide a full service we require drivers to work overtime and when drivers do not put down for the shifts required for a full service we have to make cancellations. Because it is the half-term holidays not enough drivers have put themselves down for the required shifts. We can't make drivers work overtime and it is natural they want to spend time at home with their children."

It has been a bad week for the Sussex train operator, which is fighting off bids for its franchise from rivals Thameslink and the bus and train operator Stagecoach. A decision will be made in the summer.

On Monday night, one of its trains was hit by a firebomb when a petrol filled bottle smashed a carriage window just outside Moulsecoomb station, near Brighton. Two passengers were injured.

On Tuesday, a Connex driver forgot to stop an evening commuter train at Preston Park. Yesterday, a woman passenger complained she was trapped in a carriage outside Brighton station with 50 rowdy teenagers who abused and threatened her.

Today, Connex was having talks with the drivers' union ASLEF in a bid to avert a series of one-day strikes due to start on Tuesday because of worsening industrial relations between management and staff.

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