Briefing on temporary changes to Southern train services

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Message received via Lewes District Council

Please see a briefing from GTR services below.

Briefing on some temporary changes to Southern services on the East Coastway route (introduced from Monday 14 September)

Firstly, we want to acknowledge the disruption that passengers travelling on this route experienced while the recovery operation near Lewes was ongoing as we know the impact it had on journeys. While I know this will not be welcome news, from Monday 14 September we have introduced some temporary, targeted changes to weekday off-peak services between Ore, Eastbourne, Lewes, Haywards Heath and London.

These changes are expected to remain in place for approximately four weeks while Network Rail continues to monitor track conditions and carry out maintenance work across the route. As you may be aware, a number of precautionary speed restrictions remain in place on sections of the railway in Sussex, including on sections of the route between Haywards Heath, Eastbourne and Ore. These restrictions are necessary to allow trains to continue operating safely while infrastructure conditions are monitored and remedial work is completed, but do mean trains take longer than planned to complete their journeys.

If we continued to operate the usual timetable throughout the day, delays would quickly build up and increase the risk of short notice cancellations and alterations to services for customers, and affect services across a much wider area of the network. By making targeted changes at quieter times of the day, we can help services run more reliably and predictably, while maintaining busier peak-time services for the many customers who rely on the railway to travel to and from work, education and other essential journeys. This approach will help keep people moving when demand is highest in the peak and at weekends, while reducing the knock-on delays that can affect customers across the wider network.

We recognise that customers will find these changes inconvenient, particularly following the recent disruption on the route, and we have not taken this decision lightly. However, we believe these targeted amendments represent the best balance between maintaining services for passengers and providing a reliable and punctual on this line and across the network.

Information on service changes:

  • The temporary changes will apply Monday to Friday only. Weekend services will continue to run as normal
  • The usual half-hourly service between Ore, Eastbourne and London Victoria will operate in the morning peak, until around 09:00.
  • Between 09:00 and 16:00, a shuttle service will operate between Eastbourne and Haywards Heath, where customers can change trains to continue their journey. An amended service, but of the same frequency, will operate between Eastbourne and Ore.
  • After 16:00, the regular half-hourly service between London, Eastbourne and Ore will resume, with the first train from London running through to Eastbourne departing at 16:24.

Journey planners will be updated with the service changes so customers can plan their journeys, and we will continue to share the latest information on our website. We know this service alteration will mean changes to journeys, and would like to apologise for any inconvenience it causes for customers, and we are very grateful for their understanding while these temporary arrangements are in place. We are also sorry for what is a short notice change in service for customers. We will continue to keep these arrangements under review alongside Network Rail as maintenance work progresses and conditions improve.