Buses replace trains .... again

[goldstone]

Do trains ever run on the Brighton line at weekends? Seems to me that every weekend there are replacement buses screwing up the traffic in Haywards Heath.

How much work can there possibly be to do on the track? With the number of weekends without trains they could have relaid all the track three times. What the hell are they doing?

I don't recall that this used to happen in the "old days". Presumably there were alternative routes before that idiot Beeching came along with his hatchet.

 

[rospants]

there was engineering works yesterday when i was coming back from gatwick, the train went via horsham and littlehampton and took about two hours

 

[Bry Nylon]

When's a bus not a bus...?

 

[Bry Nylon]

...when it turns into a STREET

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

...when it turns into a STREET

Bry Nylon. Alternative comedian. Like a comedian. Only not funny.

 

[aftershavedave]

a fair enough point i reckon. how much maintenance does a track need? it's far too often

 

[dougdeep]

Lets have a rail disaster instead eh?

 

[bigc]

I walked the distance of the "replacement" service the other week.

Brighton to Gatwick Airport in a day. Interesting experience.

 

[rospants]

I walked the distance of the "replacement" service the other week.

Brighton to Gatwick Airport in a day. Interesting experience.

why would you do that?

 

[bigc]

Well my friend and I had planned to walk to Haywards Heath, over Ditchling Beacon, across the Downs etc.

It took us far less time than expected, we got to Haywards Heath by 2pm and a stupid rush of foolish optimism convinced us we could go further.

We made it, but it was a slog. The Ouse viaduct looks impressive when you walk by it!

 

[Bry Nylon]

Bry Nylon. Alternative comedian. Like a comedian. Only not funny.

I'm here all week, folks

 

[e77]

Lets have a rail disaster instead eh?

I think his point is that it seems to get a lot more maintenance than other stretches of track.

Mind you I am slightly bitter as i forgot the trains weren't running and rushed backed to Preston Park station before walking back to Brighton station as I couldn't get on a bus!

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

It is actually a right pain in the arse when you live in Mid Sussex.

Waiting at Preston Park Station Bus Stop yesterday after the game...three half empty buses are lined up, all apparently going straight through to Three Bridges, without stopping anywhere. Apparently they couldn't change their routes. Then what happened....another Three Bridges only bus pulled up. Lots of annoyed people .


Ended up getting on an actual non-train replacement bus that was going to Cuckfield, which stopped about 300 times.

Finally got to Haywards Heath at 6.10. I'm usually there by 5.25 after a match.

Trains, when it comes to getting to Withdean each week, are actually pretty good. Thank the Lord it isn't a bus journey every week!

 

[Zesh Rehman]

It is actually a right pain in the arse when you live in Mid Sussex.

Waiting at Preston Park Station Bus Stop yesterday after the game...three half empty buses are lined up, all apparently going straight through to Three Bridges, without stopping anywhere. Apparently they couldn't change their routes. Then what happened....another Three Bridges only bus pulled up. Lots of annoyed people .


Ended up getting on an actual non-train replacement bus that was going to Cuckfield, which stopped about 300 times.

Finally got to Haywards Heath at 6.10. I'm usually there by 5.25 after a match.

Trains, when it comes to getting to Withdean each week, are actually pretty good. Thank the Lord it isn't a bus journey every week!

i couldnt stay on a bus for that long, id be shitting myself by the end of it ....

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I used to dread taking my kids back from Brighton to my ex-wife's in Bognor when they were tiny and it was Replacement Bus Weekend. As I don't drive, it was a four hour round trip. Stopped at every poxy little duck-halt in West sussex along the way, where nobody got on and nobody got off. Absolute f***ing nightmare. Still shudder at the memory.

 

[Gazwag]

Do trains ever run on the Brighton line at weekends? Seems to me that every weekend there are replacement buses screwing up the traffic in Haywards Heath.

Count yourself lucky its only the weekend, the Charing Cross line is closed for all of August between Wadhurst and Tunbridge Wells which means a daily bus service for anybody going up that line

 

[Barrel of Fun]

i couldnt stay on a bus for that long, id be shitting myself by the end of it ....

Avoid taking a gap year in that case.

 

[junior]

That is the reason i own a big gas guzzling 4x4 and NEVER use public transport.

And the govenment wonder why they cant get more people to use public transport

 

[British Bulldog]

I think his point is that it seems to get a lot more maintenance than other stretches of track.

It's not that it gets any more maintenance than other stretches of line, It's just that you notice it more between Three Bridges and Brighton because there's no alternative lines to use.

 

[goldstone]

My point was, just how much maintenance does a stretch of track possibly need?

You'd have thought that the whole bloody track could have been replaced during weekends over a couple of years, but the Brighton line closures seem to have been going on for decades. Why not just have one big push and get the work finished?