STUDENTS fear their education is being undermined by a train service that makes them miss lectures and spend hours on station platforms.

College authorities in Hereford have also raised concerns about the disruption caused to students travelling from the Malvern Hills area.

Grace Hinitt, aged 17, from Malvern Link, a student at Hereford Sixth Form College, missed one morning lecture completely after it was announced the Central Trains service she was relying on was terminating at Great Malvern.

She made it to the afternoon lecture but it then took her almost three hours to get home afterwards, arriving shortly before 8pm.

Lecture times mean she narrowly missed the 4.22pm train and so planned to get the 5.30pm. That was cancelled and a bus laid on instead by Central Trains but she said it never turned up and she eventually got a train just before 7pm.

"When I get home late I either end up staying up doing work until late or not doing the work and getting behind," she said.

Her mother Anita is worried Grace's studies will be affected and is concerned for her daughter's safety if a train is delayed.

On Wednesday, the Thames Trains service at 2.18pm was cancelled and Grace was again delayed.

Friend and fellow student Claire Robinson, 17, from Colwall, said it was difficult to get homework done when the trains were delayed.

"It's not only the waiting, it's the work that we miss out on and if I get home at 8pm I can only do an hour's work before I feel extremely tired."

Asked if she felt vulnerable waiting in the dark at the station Claire said: "Stations by definition are cold windy places and the times when the delays happen are times when staff go home and it is pretty desolate."

Peter Cooper, deputy principal of Hereford Sixth Form College, said: "Any delays resulting in students missing lessons will have a negative impact on their eventual examination performance."

Central Trains spokes-man Gerard Burgess said the morning delay was caused by a First Great Western train stuck outside Hereford, and the delay in the evening was caused by a broken rail.

"It was a bad day and occasionally these things happen," he said, adding that a replacement bus service was put on in the evening but many passengers were not aware of it.

The company says it is currently running 76 per cent of trains on time this year, compared to 40 per cent last year.