"Cold, wet and hungry" passengers left stranded outside Lewes Station at 1am after floods cause havoc

SussexWorld understands that around 25 passengers were left at the East Sussex train station in the early hours of Thursday (November 17) morning, after flooding in the county had cancelled trains heading further east to stations such as Eastbourne, Polegate and Hastings.

Train services between Haywards Heath had been disrupted after torrential rain had hit Sussex on Wednesday evening, with the Met Office placing a yellow warning from between 5pm until 6am the following day.

One passenger, who was trying to get to Alfriston, said: “Following the flooding, many hundreds of passengers were thrown off trains at Three Bridges and Haywards Heath from around 8.30pm. In my case, the train I was on was stopped at Three Bridges at about 9:30pm.

"I was subsequently advised to take a later train that was going as far as Haywards Heath, arriving there around 10:30pm. At Haywards Heath some two hundred of us were left with minimal information, merely told that replacement buses had been laid on and would arrive at some time.

"A replacement bus to take passengers to Lewes finally materialised after midnight. We sought assurance that we not be left stranded at Lewes, and were assured that plans were in place to get passengers to stations beyond Lewes."

When the passengers arrived at Lewes, they found the station door to be locked and no information as to how to get home.

One person said the group were told a Southern Rail employee was ‘too scared’ to come out of the station and speak to those stranded outside.

They said: “Around twenty-five cold, wet, tired, hungry passengers were left locked outside the front doors to the station. After about quarter of hour a member of staff did appear at the doors, told us that ‘you know this company is rubbish’, and then promptly locked the doors and disappeared again.

"Several of us attempted to contact Southern via phone and Twitter; one passenger was told on the phone that the member of staff inside the station was ‘too scared’ to come out and tell us what was going on.”

The passengers were then saved by the bus driver who had taken them to Lewes from Haywards Heath, after he managed to organise a bus to travel from Brighton to come and pick the group up.

The group arrived back at Polegate station just after 2:30am, with many still having to get taxis back to their original stops, arriving home more than four hours after they originally planned.

The passenger said: “Our only help came from the kind bus driver, who contacted his company’s office to tell Southern that they had an emergency on their hands.

"Eventually a bus was sent from Brighton to Lewes, arriving just before 2am. Even then, the bus did not stop as promised at smaller stations such as Berwick and I was forced to get a taxi at Polegate at 2:30am, finally arriving in Alfriston at 2:45am.”

Southern Rail have been approached for a comment.