News archive 2002

 

7 December - MP backs our campaign

Wealden MP Charles Hendry threw his weight firmly behind the campaign for a revived Wealden Line when he addressed our AGM at Uckfield on 30 November. Warning that road congestion in Uckfield was now even worse than it had been before the town's bypass was opened, he sharply criticised the SRA for having grossly over-estimated the costs of restoring the town's rail link to Lewes.

At the same time, Mr Hendry paid generous tribute to the work of the campaign, reminding those present that without its continuing work, reinstatement of the route would now be impossible.

Turning to the future, he stressed that if they wanted to see the route restored, local people had to lobby their MPs - and act as their eyes and ears to keep them in touch with the latest developments. He also looked ahead to forthcoming meetings where he, his Lewes colleague Norman Baker and county council representatives would be putting the case for the Wealden Line to SRA chairman Richard Bowker.

Rounding off his remarks, Mr Hendry concluded that with major housing development on the way for the south east, local roads would simply be unable to cope with the increased traffic. The only practical answer was better public transport.

3 December - Uckfield to Lewes in colour

Thanks to the generosity of two of our supporters, we are now able to present a previously unpublished selection of colour photographs showing the last days of the Uckfield - Lewes line.

Although for many, these pictures will make rather sad and frustrating viewing - so many 'if onlys' - they also serve to remind us what we are fighting for!

30 November - Wealden MP Charles Hendry addresses a well-attended AGM - full report soon!

17 October - SEERA plans new study

The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) is set to launch its own study on the Wealden Line proposals. The news came at the 17 October meeting of the Wealden Line Steering Group, where it was revealed that SEERA has become increasingly dissatisfied with the SRA's strategy for the route.

The work will be carried out by George Hazel Transport Consultants, a widely respected company in the field, who will be tasked with evaluating the route's potential as a regional transport asset. The study will seek to provide an economic case for the route's restoration to put before the SRA and its political masters.

SEERA's move was warmly welcomed by both East Sussex County Council and the Wealden Line Campaign. Underlining the local authority's growing support for the Wealden Line proposals, Councillor Tony Reid (Lead Member Transport & Environment) promised that ESCC would now work closely with SEERA, both to agree on the detailed objectives of the study and even to provide financial assistance if necessary.

"SEERA's interest in this project underlines what we have been saying for a long time," said Wealden Line Campaign Director Brian Hart. "They clearly share our view that it can benefit the whole region - not just places like Uckfield and Crowborough."

26 September - Fears grow over SRA

The Wealden Line Campaign has expressed grave concern at reports from rail industry commentators that the SRA has now run out of money. Sources suggest that the government agency has exhausted its funds on the bungled West Coast modernisation and on launching the Railtrack successor, Network Rail. At the same time, it also appears that train operators have been deprived of any say in improvements to the rail system.

In practical terms, this seems likely to mean that projects like South Central's Arun Valley upgrade, designed to create an 'alternative' Brighton main line are now completely dead. It is also becoming clear that there is no longer any hope of electrifying the Uckfield stump or ANY other lines in the south east: third rail electrification is effectively dead.

"Councillors, MPs and everybody who wants to see rail investment," said Campaign Director Brian Hart, "must now lower their sights and work towards limited and readily achievable enhancements to the network. 'Grand projects' are likely to be dismissed out of hand."

"The SRA's latest failure is a damning indictment of over five years of so-called 'New Labour' government," he added. "The party gained power on the promise of creating a radically improved, 'integrated' transport system; yet in office it has done no more for our crumbling rail network than the failed Labour governments of the 1970s."

24 September - Campaign meets South Central boss

Campaign Director Brian Hart headed a Wealden Line Campaign delegation in talks with South Central MD David Franks at his London headquarters. In the course of a one-hour meeting, a wide range of issues covering the Uckfield line and its possible extension were covered.

Although, for reasons of business confidentiality, not all of the content of the meeting can be disclosed at this time, Mr Hart made the following points:

29 August - SRA drops 20-year South Central francise

In a surprise move, the SRA has abandoned its plans to give train operator Govia a 20-year franchise for the South Central network, stating that the new agreement will be for "up to seven years" only. It had been expected that the new franchise being negotiated with Govia would run from the expiry of the original Connex franchise in May 2003 until 2023.

The SRA claims that the new, much shorter, franchise will still deliver "substantially the same benefits as those originally planned for the 20-year franchise". The reasons for the move were not immediately clear, but it is in line with a recent trend away from long-term franchises.

The full text of the SRA's press release can be seen here.

7 August - Uckfield - Lewes: for £25m

A new report for the Wealden Line Campaign has put the cost of reinstating the railway from Uckfield to Lewes at just £25m. The figure is based on a single line to Hamsey and was calculated using current industry costings supplied by AMEC Rail. In addition to track, signalling and repairs to structures, generous allowances were also made for land acquisition and clearence.

An enhancement to the basic scheme, which would provide more operational flexibility by adding a 2.25-mile loop between Uckfield and Isfield, would still give a total cost of just £29m.

The campaign's chairman, Simon Anderson, was quick to give the report a warm welcome. "This is a robust set of costings," he said, "compiled by an ex-Railtrack civil engineer. It proves that we can have a new rail route from London to the south coast for the price of a couple of miles of bypass. Combined with new trains that are already on the way, it would be a big hit with travellers."

13 July - "No case" for electrification says minister

Transport minister David Jamieson has effectively ruled out electrification of the Uckfield stump. In answer to a question from Wealden MP Charles Hendry, he stated on 9 July that the SRA had advised him that there was "currently no case" for electrification, the costs of which would "far outweigh the benefits". Mr Jamieson went on to note that "Equivalent passenger and operational benefits" would be secured by new diesel units, for which Govia would soon be placing an order.

Although the minister stated that the SRA would carry out a study on electrification after the South Central franchise had been running for five years, we believe that as things stand, the conclusion will be the same.

Although some will be disappointed by Mr Jamieson's announcement, we wholeheartedly welcome it. With the (expensive) red herring of electrification eliminated, the way is now clear for real progress on the only issue that matters: reopening the closed sections of line.

12 July - New trains arrive on our website

However quickly all parties work towards a restored Wealden Line, one thing is now quite certain: the CIG express stock that used to grace our site entrance will now never serve the route. These trains, which first appeared on BR's Southern Region in 1964, are all set to be scrapped under HSE rules by the end of 2004 at the latest, well before even the most optimistic date for reopening.

They are to be replaced by a new fleet of 100-mph air conditioned trains, two of which are seen under test at Polegate in our new 'cover photo'. The first of these trains, in three-car form, will enter service on the Seaford-West Coastway route in the late summer. Later on, four-car units will begin to appear on the South Coast-London routes.

It is a sobering thought that had the Uckfield-Lewes line not been destroyed in 1969, these excellent new trains would probably soon have been linking towns like Uckfield, Crowborough with Brighton and Tunbridge Wells.

Apart from being a reminder of what might have been, but for a short-sighted political decision, the choice of a new electric train to front our site also underlines our eventual goal of seeing the Wealden Line rebuilt as an integral part of the South East's electrified rail network. But where we differ from some of our critics is that we believe the Wealden Line should be restored as a through route first, with electrification flowing naturally from traffic growth.

By contrast, electrification of the current Uckfield stub would be expensive - probbly costing over £70m - but would yield no new travel opportunities for the region nor give it any value as a diversionary route. It would not offer quicker journeys or more comfort than the fleet of new diesels which is already on the way. In the long run, it may even hamper development of the route by entrenching a restrictive track layout unable to cope with more than a twice-hourly service, with only enough power for short trains.

Hardly, we think, a very good return on the investment.

27 May - New online application form

To make it easier than ever to join the campaign, we have added a new quick to complete application form that you can simply download from the "Join us" page. Just type in your details, print it off and pop it in the post with your subscription!

13 May - Campaign adopts new strategy

The Wealden Line Campaign has dropped its insistence that the Wealden Line be reinstated as an electrified route from the start. The campaign committee unanimously decided that the priority has to be restoring a through-service on the route - no matter what sort of traction is used.

Although the committee wanted to see electric trains on the route eventually, they backed Campaign Director Brian Hart's view that calling for immediate electrification would make the scheme much harder to get off the ground, thanks to much higher start-up costs.

"Given that the entire 10-mile Windemere branch was recently relayed with new track for £6m," he said, "it's quite realistic to think that without electrification, the Wealden Line could be restored as a through-route for as little as £30m. Once the trains are running again, the route will grow naturally."

"People around here want through-trains now," said Mr Hart, "not in 10 years' time. It's more important to get them running again than worry about what type of train they are." The campaign's new stance received early backing from the Uckfield Railway Line Parish Committee, which met on 15 May and underlined the need for action now rather than long-term projects which might never be completed.

29 March - Website moves to new host

After Yahoo GeoCities imposed unacceptable conditions on our continued use of its webspace, we have moved to a new host. One benefit of this is that there will be no more distracting pop-up ads on the site.

25 March - WLC puts its case to East Sussex County Council

Campaign Director Brian Hart put the case for a revived Wealden Line to Cabinet Member Tony Reid in a "constructive" 2½-hour meeting at Lewes. Mr Hart stressed the need for progress to be made in re-establishing Wealden Line as a through route - even if it was not initially electrified. Such a scheme, he said, would offer "all the major benefits" of the more elaborate schemes advocated in the past, but at a fraction of the cost.

Councillor Reid, who leads the Transport and Environment committee, said that now funding had been secured for the regeneration of Hastings, the council would be focussing on the Seaford-Lewes-Tunbridge Wells corridor. He believed a revived Wealden Line had an important role to play in this.

23 March - Campaign to rethink strategy

A major rethink of campaign strategy has begun after a meeting that brought together transport minister John Spellar, local Labour councillors and Campaign Director Brian Hart. During the hour-long meeting in London on 7 March, the group made a forceful case for reopening, but it soon became clear that there was little or no prospect of government support for the full Wealden Line scheme hitherto envisaged by the campaign.

However, prospects for a revived diesel-operated network looked much brighter. Not only could this be created more quickly and at substantially less cost, but modern DMUs - Turbostars for example - would offer passengers as good a service as the best electric trains.

Under the scheme now being considered, funds that would have been used simply to electrify the existing Uckfield stub (low speed, single track - little real passenger benefit) could be used to rebuild the closed links. The successful development of the Chiltern Line north of London provides a working example of what such a revived service might be like.

So, instead of the previous aim of the campaign, which could be summarised as:

electrification (of the Uckfield stub) - redoubling - full route reinstatement

the new order of priorities would be:

basic reinstatement - redoubling - electification

In the latter case, each step would provide a solid foundation for the next one.

In the former case, electrification of the present track layout - all that can now be hoped for - would provide little more than a glorified reversing siding with minimal incentive for traffic growth. Moreover, a lack of suitable power supplies and the fact that most signalling on the line is incompatible with electric traction would ensure very high costs.

Of course, the campaign still recognises that the long term goal must remain a double-track electrified system, with all the diversionary-route benefits this would entail. But in the short term, there is a growing awareness that this is a project that must learn to walk before it tries to run.

2 March - Grove Junction to return?

There are reports that Railtrack plans to restore a short section of track between the former Grove Junction and the site of Tunbridge Wells West as a reversing siding for Connex trains terminating at Tunbridge Wells. Already it has carried out some exploratory land clearance work between Cumberland Walk and the junction site.

If the junction is indeed restored, it will be an ironic twist of fate, as its elimination (to save money on the Hastings line electrification) was one of the key reasons that BR gave in 1982 for closing the Eridge - Tunbridge Wells route.

25 February - New DMUs on the cards

New DMUs could be brought in to replace current Uckfield line trains, some of which are now 45 years old. At a meeting of the Wealden Line Steering Committee in Uckfield, South Central MD David Franks confirmed that his company is actively considering Turbostar trains for the route as an interim measure before electrification.

Although these trains would certainly bring travel on the line up to date, unless double track is restored there will be little opportunity for shorter journey times. There is also a suspicion they might provide the SRA with an excuse for letting electrification plans slip. After all, the present class 205s and 207s were themselves introduced in 1962 as an "interim" solution prior to the then South Croydon - Lewes route's electrification!

26 January - Coach Connex buses axed

The Connex-operated No 60 bus link has been axed after little more than 18 months' operation. Contrary to earlier media reports, there is no replacement service as such - just four additional bus journeys in the evenings, supported by South Central for a year's trial. Rail tickets will continue to be valid on these services.

During the daytime, passengers will have to use the existing Nos 28 and 729 services, which do not directly serve either Uckfield or Lewes railway stations. Although Uckfield bus station is only a short distance from the railway station, bus stops at Lewes are far less convenient for prospective rail travellers - especially if they have any luggage.

Expressing his frustration at the news, Campaign Director Brian Hart said: "Despite all John Prescott's promises, this is yet another demonstration of what the government's 'integrated transport' policies mean in practice. Needless to say, the hardest hit will be the young, the disabled and the elderly."

17 January - SRA launches a damp squib

The SRA's much-touted Strategic Plan was finally published on 14 January, fully living up to the campaign's low expectations. Those who had the time to wade through its 110 turgid pages will have found little more than a collection of old initiatives - many announced several years ago - dressed up as new ones. Despite the increasingly worrying state of the railways, there was no new money for investment.

One area in which the report excelled was meaningless jargon. It positively abounded with phrases like "supporting innovation","Incremental Output Statements" and "establishing a new Rail Performance Fund", assuring us that "existing franchise agreements are delivered without viability reviews".

Predictably, there was no mention of the Wealden Line scheme whatsoever and even the references to other schemes in Sussex like the Arun Valley upgrade and Ore-Ashford electrification looked dated; since the report was written, both have been kicked into the long grass.

The Uckfield stump itself was honoured with a mention, with electrification reaching something called a "milestone" (not to be confused with "development" or "implementation") in 2006. What this meant was not immediately obvious.

Reacting to the 'plan', our Campaign Director Brian Hart said: "It's important that people are not discouraged by documents like this. Unfortunately we have long discounted the SRA as a driving force for a rail revival here or anywhere else."

Instead, said Mr Hart, the campaign was actively pursuing more promising avenues, working closely with local authorities and MPs. "We have found a real commitment to this project across the South East region - and during 2002 we will be working transform this into concrete plans."

12 January - Bus link reprieved

The threatened bus link between Uckfield and Lewes railway stations has been reprieved. Following numerous calls for the service to be saved, Govia has pledged to replace the present Connex-operated service with an equivalent one, on which rail tickets will continue to be valid.

5 January 2002 - Govt rail plans flounder - again

Government plans to increase rail passenger traffic by 50% over the next ten years have been undermined only a few days after they were made, with warnings from Railtrack that putting more trains on an already overstretched network could undermine safety. Campaign Director Brian Hart said: "Ministers still don't seem to realise that if they want to run more trains they must create new capacity. Locally, the Brighton line is already struggling to cope with existing traffic; only the Wealden Line, which would create two new routes to London, offers any prospect of better train services."