How chaos could cost me place at university
A-LEVEL student Natasha Pearson says her grades have been affected by a string of problems getting to college on Southern Rail.
The 17-year-old is studying politics, law and media studies at Collyer’s College in Horsham, which should be a 45-minute train journey from her hometown of East Grinstead.
But since the strike action began, the journey has frequently taken her two hours each way. She has regularly missed morning lessons due to late or cancelled trains, despite getting up at 6.30am.
Often Natasha does not get home until 7pm, leaving her little time to catch up on the lessons she has missed, let alone prepare her coursework or for exams.
And with no way of getting to college this week, she has had to rely on her mother giving her a lift – a 36mile round trip that takes up to twoand-a-half hours both morning and evening because traffic is so bad.
She is now so far behind she fears she will not get the grades she needs to fulfil her dream of studying politics at Bristol University.
Natasha said: ‘My college is very sympathetic but my attendance is already so reduced I feel I have to try to come in on strike days. I can’t do work on the train because it is very rare to get a seat as it’s always so busy.
‘In my first year at college there was never a problem unless it was a strike day but since this term began I’ve been delayed nearly every day. It is just a nightmare situation.
‘My grades are now a genuine worry. It feels so unfair – this is affecting my life and my future.’
Natasha pays £103 a term for her student ticket.
In Kent, mother-of-two Julie Burgess is forced to make a 50-minute round trip every morning and evening to take her 14-year-old son to and from school.
The family live in Hamstreet but her son attends school in Rye – 12 miles away in East Sussex.
It should be a 13-minute train journey, but since May the train has frequently been cancelled or severely delayed. This week there are no trains and no replacement bus service for her son to get to school,
despite the fact his student rail ticket costs £60 a term.
Mrs Burgess, 51, is a selfemployed beauty therapist and has to give up time with clients. She said: ‘Every day it is a Russian roulette as to whether the train will come and whether they will put a bus on – sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but we can never rely on it.
‘He can be waiting there for ages, it’s winter and cold and dark, so I do worry. It is nearly an hour to take him to school and drive back, sometimes I have to do that morning and evening. But there’s no other way.’