Commuter James Wormell has vowed never to travel to work by train again after receiving a court summons accusing him of fare evasion.

Mr Wormell, 29, spent weeks telephoning a rail company demanding to know why he had been summonsed to appear at Lewes Magistrates Court to face the charge.

But despite bombarding rail staff with phone calls and emails he failed to get any feedback.

He only got a response two days before the scheduled hearing, when he was told the case had been dropped.

Mr Wormell, a journalist, of Over Street, Brighton, has branded Thameslink train staff incompetent and said he will never travel to work by rail again.

Mr Wormell bought a £45 weekly pass for the Thameslink service to Redhill in Surrey.

On April 17, he left work without his wallet, which contained his weekly rail pass.

He discovered the station office was locked, so boarded a train without the pass.

He explained his problem to a ticket inspector at Preston Park station in Brighton, who Mr Wormell said was very understanding.

The inspector issued him with a form requesting he send a photocopy of his pass to the rail company's revenue office.

Mr Wormell said he did this immediately.

He said: "I assumed the matter was closed but the next thing I heard was I was facing a court case."

Mr Wormell received a letter from the rail company on June 24 telling him he was due in court on Monday, July 8.

As soon as Mr Wormell received the summons, he called the rail company's office in London.

He explained he had returned the form and a photocopy of his ticket.

He said: "I left three answerphone messages, sent an email and even scanned my ticket and emailed it to them but no one got back to me.

"The office line was either engaged or the answerphone was on."

Mr Wormell was about to approach his boss to request time off to attend court when he managed to speak to a member of staff in the office.

He was told the case had been dropped.

Mr Wormell said: "I was relieved but they hadn't phoned me to tell me and I would have turned up.

"The company seems to be steeped in incompetence."

Mr Wormell is now driving to work.

He said: "I'm driving up the M23 and to be honest, it's quicker and my stress levels are not as high."

A spokesman for Thameslink said the company did not appear to have received Mr Wormell's letter and photocopy of his ticket in April.

He said: "This is why the court summons was issued.

"We received a copy of the ticket when Mr Wormell emailed it on June 26 but the court summons was issued before that.

"As soon as we received the email we cancelled the summons."

The spokesman admitted the office dealing with the inquiries was short-staffed because of staff sickness.

He said although it was Mr Wormell's responsibility to carry a valid ticket while travelling, the company would send him some rail vouchers to compensate for the inconvenience.

The spokesman said: "The unit was understaffed and that didn't help.

"We don't want to lose James's business."