LETTER: Big addition to journey time

On Sunday, November 6, there was engineering work on the railway lines and those travelling to London Victoria from Eastbourne had to catch a train to Polegate, then bus to Lewes and another train from Lewes to Victoria via Brighton making the journey 70 minutes longer than normal.
By The Newsroom
Published 18th Nov 2016, 15:00 BST

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I subscribe to the Sussex Trains website which enables me to view train movements in the area. I found a schedule planning error in that trains were due to arrive at Berwick before the previous one had left. The result was that trains were held at Polegate up to 34 minutes and in some instances the barriers were down for 10 minutes with no train movements.

I also noted on my maps that while there was work being done on the Plumpton route there was no work shown between Lewes and Berwick. It may be that the Plumpton route work extended to Lewes but I have asked Network Rail if a through route was available from Eastbourne to Victoria via Brighton which would have extended the journey time by 20 minutes instead of 70 minutes with no bus journey. They have not replied and are hostile towards me because I have identified some issues relatiing to the automatic equipment in use at Polegate level crossing and the problems faced by slow moving elderly and disabled users.

Peter Cox

Albert Road, Polegate

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Related topics:PolegateLewesLondon VictoriaNetwork RailBrightonBerwick