How far would you go to avoid your least favourite train station?

Well Desmond Windley adds nearly a full hour onto his journey to work each day, just to avoid East Croydon Station.

"I have used East Croydon for over 40 years," he said.

"But in the last two to three years the station has deteriorated in staff and service.

"No PA system that can be heard from car stop 8-12 on any platforms; no staff on all platforms at each ends; when you do manage to find a member of SouthernRail staff they are rude and unhelpful. They will often know less that you about train times delays and directions."

Nobody likes having to switch platforms at the last minute, but for Mr Windley, the frequency of the changes has led to a full boycott of the station.

"Often platform one will be switched to platform four, this means hundreds upon hundreds of people need to cross over to a platform on the other side of the station in neck breaking time," he said.

"You can quite often be standing on platform one for a train advertised on the boards going to London Victoria, only to look across to platform four and see the exact train you need pulling in on that platform.

"You will have little to no chance to catch it. These are some of the reasons I try with all my might no to use East Croydon Station."

Instead, Mr Windley prefers some of the smaller stations to travel from.

"Waddon, West Croydon, Selhurst, South Croydon stations are a lot better and the experience is a lot better travelling from those stations into London.

"It takes longer because the trains that stop at these stations make a lot of stops, but the journey and station staff are much, much better."

A spokesman for Southern Rail said platform changes were inevitable in order to minimise delays and cancellations.

"East Croydon is one of Europe's busiest stations," he said.

"We monitor sound quality at all of our busiest stations, especially when, as at East Croydon, there are major new developments close by. There have been no issues or other complaints about the audibility of announcements on platforms here.

"Each platform at the station has a minimum of three or four staff (platforms one to four normally have five staff), with at least one at each end to cover 12-carriage trains. Each platform also has an information point where passengers can ask staff for advice and help.

"On the network as a whole, punctuality and reliability have been improving steadily this year. The National Rail Passenger Survey shows that our passengers' satisfaction ratings are also rising, on measures such as timetable and platform information, helpfulness and availability of staff, and overall satisfaction with stations."