RAIL bosses say the doubling of passengers at a railway station in a decade is not sufficient to justify an immediate investment in platform improvements.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) said Aldrington Railway Station in Hove remains one of its least busy stations in response to calls from commuters to invest in the station to match its growing use.

Campaigners said the “forgotten” station had been neglected with broken ticket machines and an “unsafe”, crumbling platform.

Cllr Tom Bewick said GTR’s response was “disappointing but not surprising” for commuters treated like third class passengers.

Passengers using Aldrington have doubled from 116,000 in 2005/06 to 236,000 in 2015/16 but commuters said the increase in numbers and revenue was not reflected in infrastructure investment.

Ticket machines, which commuters say are in the wrong location halfway up the ramp to the Brighton bound platform, have been out of action for weeks.

Complaints have been raised about similar issues at Portslade where Cllr Robert Nemeth has written to Southern about “unacceptable” delays fixing machines.

Weekly station user Edward Crask said Aldrington was often the scene of anti-social behaviour with vandals smashing ticket machines and youngsters smoking drugs in the platform shelters.

The 63-year-old said the 9ft security fences created an “oppressive, prison-like atmosphere” and were too close to the platform meaning commuters cannot see digital display boards from most positions.

Mr Crask, of Suffolk Street in Hove, said: “Aldrington station has just been forgotten about. The half an hour service is adequate but accessing tickets, not having enough staff, the big problems in bad weather, not being able to see when the next train is coming, the oppressive atmosphere, isn’t really good enough. On the Brighton-bound platform you can have up to 40 people waiting for the train on a winter morning who can’t all cram into that tiny little shelter.”

A GTR spokesman apologised for the inconvenience of broken ticket machines but assured passengers while the platform coping stones were in need of repairs, they were safe and not trip hazards. He added: “Passenger numbers at Aldrington have more than doubled over the past decade. This rate of increase is little more than the average for the Southern network. Aldrington is still among the least busy third of stations.”

He conceded there had not been any substantial investment in station facilities, apart from periodic maintenance, but it was being considered for the Small Stations Scheme in 2018/19.