Six-year-old girl writes heartbreaking letter to railway bosses asking them to 'get her daddy home on time'

Ella Porter said that delays and train cancellations meant that her father was unable to 'tuck her into bed at night'

The letter written by six-year-old Ella Porter (Neil Porter)

A six-year-old girl has written a letter pleading with rail bosses to "get her daddy home on time" after regular delays meant that he was unable to "tuck her into bed" at night.

In the heartbreaking handwritten letter, Ella Porter wrote to the managers at Southern Railway pleading with them to do more to ensure her father is home before her bedtime.

The primary school child also complained about the £4,000 pound a year her father had to pay on his journeys and said that it was "taking all of Daddy’s money" and preventing her from "going to Disneyland."

Her father, Neil Porter, 35, lives in Uckfield, East Sussex, and has to commute over one and a half hours each way every day to Shoreditch to get to his job as a graphic designer at the entertainment firm Mind Candy.

Post by Neil Porter Lettering.

However, a spate of recent delays has meant that his trains have been regularly held up or cancelled; meaning he often arrives home well after Ella’s bedtime.

The letter was posted by Mr Porter on his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages on the 15 January and has since gone viral gaining sympathy across social media users.

"I pay £4,000pa, I accept the odd disruption. Major chaos surrounds every journey. It's stressful."

According to Southern Railway, the delays and cancelled trains are largely down to a new timetable being introduced by Southern Railway for the New Year and the renovation of London Bridge.

In a statement released yesterday, a spokesman said: “We are sorry that Mr Porter has been delayed on his way home and that his daughter misses him.

"Trains to Victoria and London Bridge travel over the most congested part of the whole of Britain's railway network and we are constantly pushing against the boundaries of what is physically possible on the infrastructure to provide as much capacity as possible to and from London.

"London Bridge station is being rebuilt with fewer platforms and tracks for our trains currently, and this has made train performance even more challenging.

"We and Network Rail are determined to improve the situation and have made some additional changes to the timetable today to help with this."

Speaking yesterday, Mr Porter, who also has a son with his wife Michelle, said: "At six years old Ella is already a strong-headed young girl!

"I love spending time with her and she gets upset when I miss her bedtime."