Commuters were caught out when Parking rules at a Sussex railway station were tightened.

Motorists returned to East Grinstead station car park to find they had been hit with £30 fixed penalty notices for failing to display tickets.

The pay and display rule was enforced after train operator South Central carried out a survey which showed just 50 per cent of vehicles using the car park were displaying valid tickets.

Parking charges recently increased from £1.60 to £2.50 a day.

One regular commuter accused the train company of providing inadequate warning that the system was to be introduced and said passengers had been paying but not displaying for years - with good reason.

He said: "The car park has always been pretty badly lit and quite often the ticket machines don't work.

"For years, people have paid for parking inside the station when they buy their train ticket.

"If there are long queues, people haven't time to go back to their car again so they take the ticket with them.

"So far, they've axed a popular early morning train to London Bridge, raised parking charges and then they don't tell us the tickets have to be displayed in the car.

"Yet, in the last week, not once has my train been on time."

A South Central spokeswoman said posters warning of the enforcement had been displayed at stations before Christmas and staff had put notices on cars advising of the change, which took place on January 9.

She said: "There are 200 parking spaces at East Grinstead and our survey showed about 100 were not displaying valid tickets.

"In the past, it has been very difficult to enforce but it's really not fair on the people who do pay."

She said work was being carried out to ensure all ticket machines were in working order.