Train passengers were faced with “a dangerous shambles” as Southern and parent company Govia Thameslink Railway were accused of failing passengers at the weekend.
Reigate MP Crispin Blunt made the claim after joining efforts to get passengers to Gatwick as the train operator laid in too few replacement buses during engineering works.
The unions said the train company “couldn’t run a bath”.
Passengers missed flights and the police were called as buses were reversed towards poorly marshalled and desperate crowds.
The organisers of the Grand Brighton Half Marathon said that some runners had dropped out as a result of the situation.
This morning GTR bosses were holding a internal review into what went wrong.
The company blamed unexpectedly high numbers of passengers using the trains during the planned engineering works which complete closed the line between Gatwick and aredhill.
But airport bosses had raised concerns last week – as had the Sussex Beacon which organises the half marathon – about insufficient services.
the line closures are due to repeated over the next few weekends.
quite clearly the passengers fault for wanting to travel . Govia and Southern have planned for no people wishing to travel and had the public co-operated the service would have been more than sufficient, indeed the replacement buses would have been empty and could have been cancelled .