Workers on Southern Railway are continuing with a 48-hour strike, leading to more travel misery for hundreds of thousands of passengers today.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will remain on strike until midnight Wednesday in the long-running dispute over the role of conductors.
Picket lines will again be mounted outside stations including London Victoria and Brighton. Southern is planning to run 61% of its normal timetable and said more services will be available compared with previous strikes.
Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club’s chief executive urged the Government to intervene in the dispute, warning that someone could get seriously hurt “or worse” if the chaos continues.
Paul Barber warned that safety was being “severely compromised” by a lack of service and communication across the network.
He said thousands of Albion and Aston Villa fans were left stranded on Friday night as Southern cancelled a raft of services from Falmer station without warning shortly before the final whistle of the Championship game, giving the club “little chance” to put a contingency plan in place.
There were reports of some away fans having to sleep rough at Brighton station and children being forced to walk home the six miles from Falmer to Lewes.
He described the situation as “totally unacceptable”, adding: “We had no communication, no warning, and therefore no ability to put our contingencies in place.
“Once again Southern have let us down, let down our supporters and the supporters of another club, and left the club’s operations team to pick up the pieces.”
The union is planning more strikes next month and in the run up to Christmas and over the new year.