Reader’s letter: Dissecting the transport package for West Sussex

I was somewhat intrigued when I picked up the Worthing Herald of the June 30 to notice an article entitled ‘Package of transport investment for county’. The article commenced: "A huge package of transport investments for West Sussex has been proposed as part of efforts to step up decarbonisation and economic growth across the region.” Well, that's music to my ears.

A quick read through of their aims are to reduce car trips, increase the number of people using public transport, reversing the cost of public transport, potential for ‘new mobility’ and improvements in integration across various modes of transport. All very laudable.

Rail proposals are faster journeys and more capacity between Brighton & Hove and Southampton through a package of (unspecified) improvements in the West Coastway Strategic Study.

Currently the direct route takes 1 hour 49minutes (hourly) or 2 hours 20 minutes (hourly) with a change at Barnham. Quite honestly I can't really see how the journey time could be improved given the paucity of loops in the line to allow the passage of faster trains, and the lack of suitable land to facilitate this. Perhaps a challenge for the schedulers? Will other stations on the line lose out?

Interestingly, the plan also includes the removal of West Worthing level crossing. I'd be really interested to know how and why they propose to divert the traffic on this minor A road, which includes three bus routes, and what the planners hope to achieve. There have been several plans for this going back many years which have included a flyover but the land has mainly been built over.

Other rail improvements listed are 100mph operation on the Brighton Main Line (BML), faster services on the Arun Valley and a new station to the north east of Horsham. Presumably the new station at Horsham would replace Roffey. 100mph running on the BML seems a bit of an ask given the bottlenecks and complexities of the line. Presumably faster Arun Valley trains is perhaps an enticement to commuters from the Angmering to Littlehampton areas where house building has been incessant. However, do people want to commute to London anymore?

I've no idea why they propose Strategic Mobility Hubs for Shoreham and Three Bridges or indeed what they are, presumably a bus station and railway station together, possibly challenging at either location. Fastway buses are suggested between Crawley and Horsham which may be a good idea although duplicating existing services and a rail service. Also suggested are Fastway bus services between Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill although perhaps that meant from those towns to Crawley which may make more sense. Having lived in Mid-Sussex for most of my life I'm struggling to find a serious purpose for this suggestion.

Rural bus service enhancements are proposed for the corridors of the A23, A24, A272 A283 and the A281 up to Guildford. Probably wise if there is to be a modal shift to public transport, but unless there's a big change in travelling habits I can't see it happening and exactly where do the planners think the prospective passengers will go?

The highways improvements seem to cover roads that really don't need any improvement, like the A23 between Crawley and Gatwick, A264 Horsham to Pease Pottage and the A23 Hickstead and Bolney junctions, albeit the latter may need tweaking due to the huge building works going on looking like the whole of Mid Sussex will be covered in houses.

Some works are already planned such as the A27 Arundel bypass, which must be the biggest pig’s breakfast in road planning ever, and the A27 at Worthing is down as long-term, which is an equal pig’s breakfast over 40 years and set to roll on!

There was one scheme that I'd whole heartedly support and that is investing in the A24 between Horsham and Capel. This bit of road is totally unacceptable today with its sharp bends, and narrow width in places. A situation exacerbated by continual development in Horsham. It should have been improved when the northern section was done around 40 years ago but should be relatively easy to implement. What about upgrading the A272?

No mention of how they are going to achieve decarbonisation or economic growth although I accept it's only a small article.

On balance I can see that we should clearly be looking to the future but I'm not sure this document has a lot of merit. At best it's possibly a good place to start the conversation but that's about it. What I find particularly concerning is the makeup and number of the different bodies that make up this group. I've no problem that they are party to it but surely most of these bodies are represented in transport planning anyway. Curiously, the local bus and train operators don't appear to be represented!