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Tuesday 14 Aug 2018

East Sussex passengers reminded to check before travelling as railway upgrade work begins

Region & Route:

| Southern

Passengers planning to travel on the East Coastway are being reminded to check before they travel during August as Network Rail carries out a major upgrade to the lines between Lewes and Seaford.

For ten days from Saturday, 18 August, to Monday, 27 August, Network Rail engineers will be working to replace all signalling equipment between Lewes and Seaford with new, more reliable technology as part of a £20m signalling upgrade. 

More improvements mean triple the number of trains will be able to use the line via Lewes as a diversionary route for services between Brighton and Haywards Heath when the main line is closed. The railway sidings at Newhaven Marine will also be upgraded to support a potential freight connection in the future. 

While the railway is closed between Lewes and Seaford, buses will replace trains every 10 minutes during the peaks and every 15 minutes off-peak. Additional buses will be available to provide extra capacity if needed. More information on the replacement bus service is available from the operator and from www.nationalrail.co.uk

Work to future proof power supply and allow future operators to run more trains is also taking place on the line between Lewes and Eastbourne over the August bank holiday weekend. This work is part of wider programme to upgrade the power supply across Sussex. This work will take place at night and will not affect train services.

John Halsall, Network Rail’s managing director for the South East route, said: “The work we’re carrying out in East Sussex  is part of our plan to provide a better, more reliable railway for passengers. The new signalling equipment will be far less likely to fail, while our upgraded power supply will give future train operators the option to run more trains.

“We’re also doing some much-needed work at Lewes to enable three trains an hour to use the diversionary route between Brighton and Haywards Heath, helping us keep people on the move during disruption or if we need to close the main line between Brighton and Burgess Hill for engineering work.

“We know that there is never a good time to close the railway, especially during weekdays. I’d like to apologise to passengers for the disruption this will cause and thank them in advance for their patience and understanding.”  

The resignalling scheme will renew outdated signalling equipment between Lewes and Newhaven. It will see the signal boxes at Lewes, Newhaven Town and Newhaven Harbour closed, with control of the signalling in the area transferred to Network Rail’s state-of-the-art route operating centre at Three Bridges.

In addition, the scheme will improve the diversionary route capability for London/Haywards Heath - Brighton services via Lewes - with three trains per hour able to use this route rather than the current one train per hour. This reduces the requirement for rail replacement buses during planned engineering work and enables services to keep moving during unplanned disruption.

Old semaphore signals and points at Newhaven Marine sidings will also be replaced with a simpler layout to modern standards. This is with the view to facilitating a rail freight connection with the Port Authority as part of a separate scheme.