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Wednesday 26 Aug 2026

Positive progress being made in restoring railway between Haywards Heath and Lewes following derailment

Region & Route:

Southern

| Southern: Sussex

Engineers are making good progress in restoring the railway ready for train services to resume on Tuesday 1 September.

Steady and positive progress is being made in restoring the railway between Haywards Heath and Lewes ahead of the line’s reopening on Tuesday 1 September, following the derailment on Thursday 13 August. 

With over 80% of the work already completed to rebuild the railway embankment, install replacement track and reposition signalling equipment, Network Rail engineers are confident of an on-time finish. 

The operation has involved:  

• Constructing temporary foundations and working platforms to support heavy lifting equipment.  

• Deploying specialist Kirow cranes to recover the derailed vehicles.  

• Recovering and removing all eight carriages from the site.  

• Removing damaged track and ballast.  

• Repairing and reinstating the embankment.  

• Installing new track and associated infrastructure.  

• Reinstating signalling and railway systems.  

• Completing extensive testing and final safety checks.  

So far, over the course of the recovery and rebuilding of the railway:  

• Four engineering trains have been used to transport materials to the site 

• 250 site trips by tipper trucks have been made  

• 9,000 tonnes of Type 1 aggregate have been delivered to the site  

• Four derailed carriages have been recovered  

• At least 5,000 hours of work has been carried out by teams across Network Rail, GTR and their contractors  

In total, 500 metres of track will be renewed, using a rail drop train, and 850 sleepers will be replaced, across a section of embankment 160 metres long. 

Louise Greaves, Infrastructure Director for Network Rail said: “This has been a complex and challenging recovery operation, but we are making strong progress towards our goal of reopening the railway for customers on Tuesday. With the heavy infrastructure work being well on the way to completion we can then focus our efforts on the final testing we need to do to reopen the railway safely. 

"I'd like to thank Southern customers and freight customers for their patience and understanding while we complete this vital work."