Sussex railway station ranks top for cancellations

Ifield railway station in Crawley has the highest percentage of cancellations in the country

Ifield railway station in Crawley has the highest percentage of cancellations in the country, according to new figures seen by the BBC.

The data from August last year to August this year showed that 10.4% of trains did not stop as scheduled at the West Sussex station.

In a separate list of the busiest stations in the country, Gatwick Airport was sixth with 5.8% of stops cancelled.

Emma Pickard, network operations and performance director for Thameslink and Network Rail said: "We understand our service hasn't always been good enough, and we're deeply sorry for the disruption this has caused to passengers."

Commuters said they had regular experience of delays and cancellations at Ifield railway station.

Mike Chiappori said: "We do get quite a lot at Ifield, especially the early morning trains. It gets a bit frustrating at times.

"It wasn't the end of the world but a few weeks ago, I missed the start of the cricket which was a bit frustrating."

Mike Chiappori says the cancellations at Ifield are frustrating

Vijayluxmi Rawat said: "Trying to get to work every day, and we get delays of hours sometimes. This station is a small one and fewer trains go from here, so we have to go to a different station in Crawley and get a bus or taxi."

Victor Narvaez said: "I have experienced that with Ifield the train is often cancelled. So I have to check before I leave my house, otherwise I have to get a taxi to Three Bridges."

The data, analysed by the BBC from the Office of Rail and Road's exit and entry ranks, referred to the percentage of train stops cancelled, rather than individual trains. They include figures for trains which do not stop as scheduled along their routes.

Earlswood and Salfords in Surrey were also among the stations with the highest percentage of train stops cancelled. Both had 9.8% cancellations.

While City Thameslink was the highest ranking of the country's busiest stations with 7.7% of train stops cancelled at the station.

Ms Pickard said the industry was tackling issues including signalling and power supply faults, improving train crew availability and investing to make the network more resilient to severe weather.

"People rightly expect trains to run reliably, and we understand how frustrating it is when trains are cancelled," she added.