Commuter stuck in blizzard after trains hit by snow

But his experiences earlier this week prompted him to dub his journey home “the worst I’ve ever had”.

It ended with him having to walk the final six miles to his Portfield Close home in a blizzard, crossing the threshold at 1.30am and close to exhaustion.

But despite the physical impact of his ordeal, the thing which most infuriated Mr Stubbs, 56, was the lack of communication and apparent indifference of those responsible for the transport infrastructure.

He said: “I was only 10 minutes late getting into work on Tuesday morning, which given the weather conditions wasn’t bad. But things deteriorated after I got back to London Charing Cross at 5pm and found no Hastings-bound trains.

“No announcements were made to let passengers know what was going on until about 7.30pm, when at last we were told there was a train coming in that would be heading for Tunbridge Wells. Formed of eight coaches, it was cut to four when half of the rolling stock was declared unserviceable, but at least it offered the prospect of getting a bit nearer home

“After a cramped and uncomfortable journey, we arrived at Tonbridge at around 10pm to be told the train was being terminated and we would have to complete our journey to the coast on a rail replacement bus.”

Mr Stubbs said this got him as far as The Ridge, St Leonards, before the driver was forced to abort the journey because of sheet ice that would have made it dangerous to continue. This left Mr Stubbs and a similarly stranded companion with a six-mile trek home through driving snow and sub-zero temperatures.

He said: “Here was another example of couldn’t care less, because it was quite obvious that despite all the assurances, the roads in this area just hadn’t been gritted.”

And he added: “Until people in authority here wake up to their responsibilities, this area will remain the worst in the south-east in which to live and commute.” A spokesperson for South Eastern Trains said: “This week our services have been badly affected by the weather and we are sorry for the problems this has caused our customers.

“We have been working round the clock with Network Rail to try and provide the best service we are able to during this time.

“We have endeavoured to keep our website up to date throughout and pass on information to our passengers. But in a rapidly changing environment there have been times that this has not been possible.

“Today (Thursday) we have been able to run more services throughout the day, although there’s still major disruption across the network.

“We will be continuing to run a reduced service for Friday 3 December due to the predicted weather.”