[News] Brighton commuters to face 18 days of closures for engineering work

[TomandJerry]

Beleaguered commuters from*Brighton*who have suffered years of delays on Southern and Thameslink have been warned that the main line will close for two nine-day periods for engineering works.

Network Rail and the train operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, urged passengers in Sussex to plan ahead for what they described as a “once-in-a-generation” upgrade to the southern end of the line.

The work, due to take place in October and in February 2019, will close the track south of Three Bridges, near Gatwick airport, to Brighton and Lewes. It is the centrepiece of a £300m upgrade programme to replace or upgrade track, drainage, power and signalling on the line, which is used by 300,000 passengers a day. Replacement buses will operate but the work is likely to add up to an hour to journeys."

Wow

 

[studio150]

So 2 weekends each time thereby affecting home games. Will the work be tied into school holiday periods when commuting numbers are down or more likely at a time to cause maximum problems

 

[Notters]

But there's no case for bml2. Riiight.

 

[kevo]

But there's no case for bml2. Riiight.

It's amazing calls for an alternative route have been consistently rejected. Even without BML2 just reopening the 7 miles of track between Lewes and Uckfield would provide a solution and would be a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of HS2.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

I wonder how much longer this kind of nonsense can continue before people just simply decide that commuting from Brighton to London isn't worth the hassle

 

[kevo]

I wonder how much longer this kind of nonsense can continue before people just simply decide that commuting from Brighton to London isn't worth the hassle

I think a lot of people already have.

 

[The Clamp]

Unlike other, forward thinking countries we let our old lines go to ruin so cannot re-open most of them. We don't have enough space to simply build new lines while the others remain open so unfortunately it is like trying to change the wheel on a bus while it's still driving.
If this was going to go smoothly I'd shrug and say well how else can it be done but it won't go smoothly. It'll be an overschedule, overbudget omni-shambles.

 

[Sussexscots]

So 2 weekends each time thereby affecting home games. Will the work be tied into school holiday periods when commuting numbers are down or more likely at a time to cause maximum problems

Scheduled for October 2018 and February 2019 Half term breaks according to the Guardian. That being the case, perhaps the club should approach the FA and ask that they avoid scheduling home fixtures for those weekends in the absence of susustainable transport.

Major pain in the erky but given the number of delays and problems attributable to the creaking, antediluvian infrastructure it definitely needs doing.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Network Rail and the train operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, urged passengers in Sussex to plan ahead for what they described as a “once-in-a-generation” upgrade to the southern end of the line.

Once in a generation? They’ll still be shutting the line down every few months after this.

 

[Dave the OAP]

In fairness to the railway engineering lot, they have to do do repairs at some time. These tunnels are Victorian and need patching up. Unfortunately as with most things, when you replace outdated infrastructure, there are disruptions...remember all the hassle when they decided to replace all the gas mains in the city.

We are moan like feck about the trains and delays , notwithstanding the workers and management, but if this work of replace and renewals led to a better service we would all be happy.

I am not sure the railways take into account inconvenience of football fans travelling as this is a minuscule number compared to th daily commuters using the rail system.

Of course we could have some radical thinking and as we are renewing the tunnels, we could lift them a few feet and look at double decker trains like they have in France and Italy. They are brilliant having used them and would ease the over crowding...but doubtless that is too difficult to work out.

 

[dazzer6666]

I think a lot of people already have.

Loads I know.............would have binned it myself if I had to commute daily. As it is, working from home 2-3 days a week and travelling at least one week a month makes it bearable.

 

[beorhthelm]

But there's no case for bml2. Riiight.

who ever said that? the argument is that there isnt enough of a case for BML2. it asks for is billions of infrastructure for a few thousand commuters from Brighton and Lewes to benefit. we would all like it, but the cost/benefit doesn't add up.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Loads I know.............would have binned it myself if I had to commute daily. As it is, working from home 2-3 days a week and travelling at least one week a month makes it bearable.

Commuting in my sector is becoming less and less. In fact it’s almost impossible to find good candidates who are willing to regularly travel an office these days.

 

[Gwylan]

Commuting in my sector is becoming less and less. In fact it’s almost impossible to find good candidates who are willing to regularly travel an office these days.

Funnily enough, I'm working with a recruitment company at the moment analysing some data. Nearly 40% of employees would be willing to travel more than an hour to work and 4% would be happy to travel more than three hours.

Wouldn't suit me, but you'd be surprised how long people would be willing to travel. And that's across a range of different job sectors.

 

[Madafwo]

Of course we could have some radical thinking and as we are renewing the tunnels, we could lift them a few feet and look at double decker trains like they have in France and Italy. They are brilliant having used them and would ease the over crowding...but doubtless that is too difficult to work out.

That wouldn't work according to the powers that be due to the added dwell time at stations, it's more efficient to have more frequent single deck trains as they can get in and out of stations quicker.

This doesn't go far enough in my opinion. Close the whole lot down for 6 months, buy up the land required to make it quad track all the way down from Three Bridges and then have a clear run for the express trains and slow lines for stoppers, all changing at somewhere like Haywards Heath/Three Bridges for London and beyond. Put a flying junction in for the line from Lewes at Wivelsfield so you can have trains heading to Brighton while a train comes over from Lewes without blocking the BML heading south.

 

[A1X]

If they re-opened Lewes - Uckfield (and electrified it) and opened a chord to allow passage from Angmering to Arundel and the line to Horsham without reversing at Littlehampton then it would help drastically in these situations.

BML2 is a waste of money and doesn't address 95% of the issues faced by the BML.

 

[dazzer6666]

Funnily enough, I'm working with a recruitment company at the moment analysing some data. Nearly 40% of employees would be willing to travel more than an hour to work and 4% would be happy to travel more than three hours.

Wouldn't suit me, but you'd be surprised how long people would be willing to travel. And that's across a range of different job sectors.

People will say anything to get a job........

 

[Beach Hut]

Commuting in my sector is becoming less and less. In fact it’s almost impossible to find good candidates who are willing to regularly travel an office these days.

Same with me, now commute one day a week, if the option to WFH was withdrawn I would retire

 

[Napper]

Littlehampto to London direct surely needs looking at again

 

[Gwylan]

People will say anything to get a job........

This is an anonymous survey so that doesn't apply in this case.

I'm staggered by the more than three hours - that would make Newcastle commutable from London.

I couldn't hack the Brighton commute so I work from home, some of the distances people travel are crazy,