Media centre

Tuesday 4 Dec 2018

Brighton and south coast passengers invited to have their say on plans to transform service

Region & Route:

| Southern

Passengers, businesses and residents on the south coast are invited to have their say on proposals to transform the reliability of trains on the Brighton Main Line.

Network Rail is developing proposals to remove the railway bottleneck at Croydon to deliver a step change in reliability for the 300,000 passengers who travel on the Brighton Main Line and its branches each day.

The plans would see the railway remodelled with new flyovers replacing junctions, and East Croydon station rebuilt with two extra platforms and better facilities for passengers.

The consultation events will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 10 and 11 December 2018, 4-8pm, at the Brighthelm Centre, North Rd, Brighton, BN1 1YD.

People can also take part online by visiting www.networkrail.co.uk/Croydon until Monday, 17 December.

Network Rail will hold a second round of consultation on more detailed proposals in summer 2019.

John Halsall, Network Rail’s managing director in the south east, said:

“Removing the Croydon bottleneck is the only practical way to provide the step-change in reliability and capacity that passengers and businesses on this vital growth corridor so desperately want to see.

“We’ve had a tremendous response to the consultation over the past few weeks, with thousands of people attending events and responding online.

“With only a few weeks left until this phase of consultation closes I’d like to encourage passengers and businesses to have their say by coming to one of our events or feeding back on-line."

The Croydon area is by far the busiest and most congested part of Britain’s rail network, with 30 per cent more passengers and trains passing through it each day than London Euston and King’s Cross stations combined. Train punctuality on the Brighton Main Line is the lowest of any major route as the bottleneck magnifies the impact of even the most minor incident or delay

The proposed upgrade is a key part of Network Rail’s long-term strategy to ensure that the rail network can continue to support and drive UK economic growth, providing reliable, fast and frequent services for the increasing numbers of people predicted to travel by rail.

Network Rail is already carrying out a major project to renew and upgrade tracks and signalling on the southern end of the Brighton Main Line. Work is taking place at weekends as well as during a nine-day blockade in February 2019.

Other ongoing improvements to the line include power supply upgrades across Sussex to allow longer and more frequent trains to run in the future and an upgrade of the old signalling system on the Lewes to Seaford line which is taking place at weekends and over a four-day blockade of all routes via Lewes, including to Haywards Heath from 7-10 March 2019.