Eridge -
November 2003

205001 with a mid-morning Oxted train about to restart from Eridge's sole remaining operational platform.

By this time, persistent vandalism and a lack of maintenance had left the platform buildings in a poor state of repair -- note the boarded up windows to the right of the train. Indeed, as 2003 drew to a close, there were persistant rumours that these buildings would soon be demolished.

If the link from Lewes to Uckfield had not been needlessly severed in 1969, it seems quite likely that the route would have developed in much the same way as the successful Hastings line -- less than five miles away at this point -- with a freqent service, double track and, quite possibly, electric trains linking the Weald with the Sussex coast.

The platfrom in the foreground, which may host future Spa Valley Railway services from Tunbridge Wells, had not seen passengers since January 1990, when the line here was singled.