Also, if he was rocking up 5 or ten mins late most days and apologising and blaming the train, just because his supervisor said 'never mind, it happens' doesn't mean they are completely cool with it. He was very naive to think that he needn't worry about being late very frequently, in spite of what was being said.
It does unavoidably happen on occasion with any type of commute involving transport of some sort, but if it happening more frequently than expected, the solution should be blindingly obvious.
They were looking for signs that he would realise this and taken the appropriate action himself. He didn't. He needed to be told. But as I said, this is very unlikely to have been the only issue.
One of the people who was eventually sacked by me used to frequently text to say he would be late or not in at all, because his car wouldn't start. He lived 45 minutes away and he would never let us know until after he was already late. In spite of the fact that if he was ever going to be on time he should have been trying to start his car an hour ago.
On the days when he was simply late, I realised he just couldn't drag himself out of bed.
On the days when he didn't make it in at all, I accept that he probably did have problems with his car. I did not accept that he couldn't walk to the bus stop or jump on the train instead, preferring to throw his hands up in resignation that he simply wouldn't manage to get to work that day.
His argument was that the bus or train took too long, the walk to the station was too far and he'd never have applied for the job if he'd thought he'd need to use public transport because it was too much hassle. My argument is that in general he didn't have to use PT, but he should be prepared to use it short term, in emergency situations rather than simply not come to work at all.
This is the sort of thing that really sorts the wheat from the chaff.