Opening Up Old Sussex Railway Lines

[worthingseagull123]

Uckfield - Lewes is being looked into Network Rail, but this if anything is just to silence the groups asking for the re-opening - so i heard anyway.

It was looked at a few years ago but ruled out as there was no viable business case due to the large costs involved. Its incredibly unlikely to actually go ahead.....ever.

Saw someone mention about Brighton - Horsham, i have heard (probably a load of crap) that they are looking at building a chord near Arundel to allow a direct service between Brighton and Horsham via Worthing to run - also to be used as a route into London avoiding Gatwick and Croydon and anything avoiding Croydon is a good thing !!

If we wont spend then we will continue to have a third world service. Such a shame as everything is about money these days.

Besides a lot of people work in Croydon and travel up from Brighton. So not good to avoid Croydon.

 

[Superseagull]

Instead of wasting billions on HS2 I'd rather we invest on all these smaller regional schemes that would actually spread the benefit around the country.

 

[ken tiler]

Wasn`t there an announcement recently that £50 million is being spent on doing-up Gatwick Airport station. I would have thought you could have built a railway from Uckfield to Cooksbridge for that money.

 

[Norman Potting]

Wasn`t there an announcement recently that £50 million is being spent on doing-up Gatwick Airport station. I would have thought you could have built a railway from Uckfield to Cooksbridge for that money.

That is what the closure at Christmas was about I expect. Adding a new platform so that Gatwick Express services don't interfere with the main line services in theory.

 

[fat old seagull]

Beeching was, with respect, and with the benefit of hindsight, an idiot.

Surely, don't need hindsight to realise that. Did that stupid man not consider the ever rising population and future housing development. So consistent with backward thinking penny pinching Tory policies, then and now.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Wasn`t there an announcement recently that £50 million is being spent on doing-up Gatwick Airport station. I would have thought you could have built a railway from Uckfield to Cooksbridge for that money.

I'm a great supporter of public transport, (hence my avatar), but quite frankly how many people would use an Uckfield to Cooksbridge service? Gatwick Airport Station, like it or not, is a very heavily used station, so to me, spending the £50m on improving services and facilities there, has to be the bigger priority. Sadly there is only so much money to go round.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Anyone remember/travelled on the Steyning line?

Another lost Sussex line that hasn't got a mention yet.

I used to go on that train regularly with my Dad from Portslade to Henfield. My uncle worked and lived at Henfield station until 1963 when he was forced to take early retirement. All he got for a lifetime on the railways was a clock & a council flat in Fabians Way.

 

[ken tiler]

opening up lines

I'm a great supporter of public transport, (hence my avatar), but quite frankly how many people would use an Uckfield to Cooksbridge service? Gatwick Airport Station, like it or not, is a very heavily used station, so to me, spending the £50m on improving services and facilities there, has to be the bigger priority. Sadly there is only so much money to go round.

Your're right, not many people would want to go from Uckfield to Cooksbridge, but lots of people would want to travel from London/East Grinstead/Crowborough/Tunbridge Wells to the south coast. I`d rather have an improvement in the network by adding about 5 miles of rail track, rather than some new waiting rooms at Gatwick Airport, which seems fine as it is.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Surely, don't need hindsight to realise that. Did that stupid man not consider the ever rising population and future housing development. So consistent with backward thinking penny pinching Tory policies, then and now.

Population was FALLING at the time. Families were down from 3 kids to 2 and lower and there was no immigration.

 

[goldstone]

They'll have to get the builders merchants to move out of Ardingly station.

No they won't. There's a plan to relay tracks through the station site to avoid the roadstone operation.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Population was FALLING at the time. Families were down from 3 kids to 2 and lower and there was no immigration.

Apart from the mass immigration from the Caribbean to do all the "dirty jobs" that nobody else wanted to particularly do

 

[fat old seagull]

Population was FALLING at the time. Families were down from 3 kids to 2 and lower and there was no immigration.

Sorry Vegas you are misinformed, at least in connection to Hailsham whose population has risen steadily for hundreds of years and of course now has become a town in its own right. This is a paragraph from Wikipedia about the axing of the line. Which I recall so vividly being resident at Hellingly (not the hospital) at the time......
The closure of the section from Polegate to Hailsham was disputed — British Railways going so far as to admit that the town was growing at the time of closure and that the town would soon outgrow other public transport.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Three Bridges to E/G Should never have closed.

 

[worthingseagull123]

That is what the closure at Christmas was about I expect. Adding a new platform so that Gatwick Express services don't interfere with the main line services in theory.

Adding the new platform has made no difference. Our train still crawls through Gatwick stuck behind a Brighton to Victoria Gatwick Express.