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A rail firm has apologised after train doors closed and almost trapped a Surrey mother and two of her children.

Amanda Gibb, from Ashtead, was taking nine-month old Ava, three year-old Katie and Max, 11, home by train.

The doors closed before the whole family were aboard and Ms Gibb has said her son is now having nightmares and her daughter refuses to go on a train.

Southern said the "very serious" incident, at Epsom station, was "very rare" but should not have happened.

Steve Enright, head of safety, said: "We have undertaken a thorough and detailed investigation. I spoke to Ms Gibb myself to apologise for this, it shouldn't have happened. That investigation does indicate that we failed to carry out our correct process and that has resulted in the doors closing."

Ms Gibb and her three children were waiting for the 3.57 train on the platform of Epsom station on 29 December. When the train arrived a fellow passenger helped her get Ava and the buggy on board. As Ms Gibb turned to help three-year old Katie and Max, 11, on to the train, the doors began to close on the children.

Ms Gibb used her legs the stop the doors trapping the children. "The doors closed on to my legs," she said. "So I'm standing prising the doors open with my legs, holding Katie by one hand and the pram with the other. Fortunately, from somewhere, Max was able to have the savvy to give Katie a huge, hefty shove and then leap into the train himself."

"After I'd done that then, of course, you start imagining what could have happened."

Southern Railway issued a statement which said: "By studying the CCTV images we were able to see Ms Gibb's party boarding the train and the doors closing on her family.

"Dispatch staff were present on the platform and should have given the dispatch signal once everyone was on the train, however it appears that this process failed and the doors began to close before the party had finished boarding.

"Our investigation will now establish where the failure occurred by interviewing the staff concerned and the necessary actions will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."

Apology from train company after doors slam on family at Epsom

A mother has spoken of the horrifying moment a train door slammed shut on her leg leaving her two young children stranded on the platform.

Amanda Gibb, 35 from Ashtead, was boarding a train at Epsom station on Thursday, December 27, with her three children, aged nine months, three and 11, when the accident happened.

Although she managed to get her children on the train safely she was left with bruising to her leg and said her children are now afraid to travel by train.

Southern Rail has apologised to her, admitted its procedures failed and has launched an investigation into what went wrong.

She said: "A woman had helped me carry the buggy onto the train and I then turned to help my three year old and 11 year old onto the train. I had one hand on the pram and as I leant out to take the hand of my three year old the doors closed on my leg and I believe the train started to move.

"I held the doors open with my legs whilst holding the pram with the other hand. I dragged my daughter in and my son pushed her in.

"We were able to get on but I was really shaken and other passengers could see that. My daughter could have easily fallen through the gap and gone under the train and no one would have noticed."

She added: "The day before yesterday we were going to go back into Epsom and my daughter said 'No Mummy, I^m not going on the train' and she got really quite upset.

"My son has had nightmares saying he had a dream that he didn^t manage to help her.

"Honestly I^m still quite upset about it and I^m still picturing what could have happened."

Southern Rail denied that the train had started to move but admitted their safety measures had failed and has since apologised to Miss Gibb and launched a full investigation.

Miss Gibb added: "I would like to say that the head of safety at Southern has been fantastic and has been really open and honest about what he^s doing and the investigation.

"It^s the member of staff on the station that is at fault.

"The fact that my pram is bright red with huge red spots and my daughter was wearing a lime green jacket might indicate they weren^t even looking."

A spokesman for Southern Rail said: "As soon as we received Ms Gibb^s letter our head of safety launched an investigation into the incident.

"By studying the CCTV images we were able to see Ms Gibb^s party boarding the train and the doors closing on her family.

"The CCTV and train data also shows that while this was obviously distressing for the family, the train did not move.

"Dispatch staff were present on the platform and should have given the dispatch signal once everyone was on the train, however it appears that this process failed and the doors began to close before the party had finished boarding.

"Our investigation will now establish where the failure occurred by interviewing the staff concerned and the necessary actions will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.

"Our dispatch processes have been approved by the Office of Rail Regulation and are regularly checked. Our services make around 30,000 station stops every day and incidents such as this are very rare.

"This was a case of the process not being followed properly.

"We have contacted Ms Gibb to apologise for the distress caused and have offered to support her children in rebuilding their confidence in train travel in any way we can."