Commuters face delays and cancellations on first day of Southern Railway's new timetable

Commuters faced delays on the Southern Railway network on the first day of the train company's new reduced timetable.

Southern Railway said the interim move, which has seen it cut 341 trains a day for a month, was aimed at making services more "resilient".

Commuters are set to protest at London Victoria later today over the revised timetable.

Passengers vented their frustration on the firm's Twitter feed as services failed to arrive on time on Monday morning:

A spokesman said: "Ninety-five percent of trains are running on time or within five minutes against a revised timetable and there has been no reporting of overcrowding issues."

He added that one Southern service had been cancelled between Horsham and London Victoria.

The firm previously apologised to passengers for weeks of disruption and pressed ahead with the timetable changes despite warnings that they could have a "devastating" impact.

Southern, owned by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), blames high levels of staff sickness as well as industrial action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union in a dispute over the role of conductors.

Southern's passenger services director, Alex Foulds, said when the changes were announced last week that the cuts would mean "a better, more consistent service".