Train Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells bus 281 to Crawley about 2 hrs
Enjoy that bus.
First 291 from TW leaves TW station 0720 and after staggering around Groombridge Forest Row East Grinstead and Crawley Down should get to Crawley at 0910 on school days, that's if it is not delayed by traffic from East Grinstead onwards to Crawley which is a given at that time of day.
Mind you plenty of seats, when I used it I was the sole passenger on a double decker from Forest Row to Groombridge going the other way in the peak and had a packed total of five of us when it got to TW.
Ticket acceptance via LB is good news, otherwise its over £80 per trip for me as opposed to £31 via Redhill Tonbridge (which ticket is not easy to find on either Network Rail, SE or Southern Web sites) The connections are so bad I get to TW at the same time via London Bridge as I do going via Redhill Tonbridge direct, ie leave Chichester at 0608 and TW at 0909. You arrive at Tonbridge on platform 1 to see the tail lights of a Hastings leaving platform 3 disappearing under the bridge.
What is surprising is how many use this line, the peak hours can be standing getting into Tonbridge and well over 75% full on a Saturday even with a user unfriendly hourly only service.
Thoughts to those struggling in the mud to rectify the slip, the Weald is always troublesome in the wet, there have been bad slips over the years in a lot of different places on the Brighton main line, MidSussex north and south of Horsham as well as on the Hastings south of TW.