Brighton Main Line Closure (16 - 24 February)

[Antman]

BBC Radio Sussex are covering it at the moment and so far so good it seems with plenty of staff to assist passengers at Three Bridges with various street entertainers to hopefully keep everyone in a good mood.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Also i must say i am always surprised that they are still using coaches on rail replacement these days. I have seen quite a few coaches on these services. The bus company i work for has a fleet of 100% low floor buses but many other operators are running coaches. I am surprised that they still allow this. I am surprised that the DDA compliance rules do not apply to rail replacement as well. It is not very good for the disabled or OAPs or those with lots of bags.

Coaches are good for rail replacement due to the luggage space and seat comfort. While they increasingly have wheelchair lifts or a small low floor section, if they don't the requirement is that the service is accessible, not a specific vehicle. So a wheelchair-accessible taxi might instead be provided on demand.

If coaches were to be banned, given their ubiquity in private hire companies, we might as well give up doing rail replacement entirely.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I consider myself sacked from parental responsibilities.

You genuinely can't tell them that (rather than simply don't want to but will if you have to)? Bluntly, they're going to grow up spoilt, aren't they, then?

Disappointment is part of life, including for 6 year olds.

 

[387star]

You genuinely can't tell them that (rather than simply don't want to but will if you have to)? Bluntly, they're going to grow up spoilt, aren't they, then?

Disappointment is part of life, including for 6 year olds.

Kids are a pain

Ruin so many days out with their constant screaming

 

[radamfi]

Also i must say i am always surprised that they are still using coaches on rail replacement these days. I have seen quite a few coaches on these services. The bus company i work for has a fleet of 100% low floor buses but many other operators are running coaches. I am surprised that they still allow this. I am surprised that the DDA compliance rules do not apply to rail replacement as well. It is not very good for the disabled or OAPs or those with lots of bags.

In the north, coaches are the norm for rail replacement.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I was about to comment and offer words of wisdom and advice. Then I read what I put and saw a P45 in my future. So, all I can say is good luck and pray I'm not saying 'I don't know, I'm sorry' all next week.
PS. I have found a plan/map, but it was already being dumped this afternoon.

Have you seen the weather forecast for the week ahead?

The point being that the ad hoc leisure traveller is less likely to be aware of the closure than the daily commuter.

The ad-hoc traveller, if booking tickets online, will be warned about the rail replacement buses. If they’re not tech-savvy and can’t use a booking engine, their 6-year old probably can !

 

[Antman]

The next nine days are going to be complete and utter chaos. Just wait until on Monday morning during the peak hour and we will really see how bad it is. Southern Rail (as usual) have planned this extremely poorly. It will be a disaster.

Well if you've been listening to BBC Radio Sussex this morning it's all gone very smoothly so far, enjoy your humble pie! The only gripe seems to be that passengers aren't entitled to delay repay.

The reason given for not running a fast rail replacement service is Three Bridges wouldn't be able to cope with the volume of passengers which is why the intention is for passengers to use the train via Littlehampton.

 

[philthetube]

I take a shuttle every morning in Singapore where I live. The drivers are sometimes substituted but they use an app by Beeline / Grab which has all the stops in and they just follow the navigation and timings. As it's using Google maps we reroute around traffic sometimes. On my side I can follow their position in the app as well.


I really don't understand why something similar couldn't be implemented. A controller could then send a message/retiming to delay a buses departure in the event of a late running train etc

That sounds like a recipe for disaster, bridge strikes etc. The rest of it sounds good though.

With the kids on holiday, parents may decide to take them to Brighton and the situation could be worse than a normal week.

, even with the forecast it will still be a bit nippy for 6 year olds on the beach, and only the parents who are not woring will be available to take them anyway.

Also i must say i am always surprised that they are still using coaches on rail replacement these days. I have seen quite a few coaches on these services. The bus company i work for has a fleet of 100% low floor buses but many other operators are running coaches. I am surprised that they still allow this. I am surprised that the DDA compliance rules do not apply to rail replacement as well. It is not very good for the disabled or OAPs or those with lots of bags.

How many low floor busses does your company have available to hire this week? I would be surprised if there were more than 100 available throughout the whole south east.

 

[al78]

Strange that a childs trip to the seaside has come up quite so strongly.

A parent has the following options:

1. Postpone the trip until the engineering work is over.
2. Make an alternative trip (coast or not) just as enjoyable for the child, which doesn't involve the rail replacement fiasco.
3. Drive to the seaside (if they have a car).

A bit of flexibility is sometimes needed in life, you don't have complete control over everything that can possibly affect you, all you can do is plan accordingly and/or be prepared to make last minute alterations. At worst, you have to temporarily deal with a screechy sprog with a temper tantrum, but you should be experienced at dealing with that anyway.

 

[717001]

They've been adding quite a lot of pictures of the work to the Brighton Mainline Improvement Project Twitter feed https://twitter.com/brighton_line

There's mention of having 27 separate work sites.

 

[RichardN]

Well my employer has let me work from home this week (they would have also been happy to stump up the bill if I wanted to stay in a hotel near work.), so on the basis that others will choose the hotel route, I'd expect Monday morning and Thursday or Friday evening to be by far the heaviest loading.

 

[RichardN]

They've found an engraved stone at Balcombe regarding an Engine Driver's strike in 1867. https://twitter.com/brighton_line/status/1097465592905457665

 

[infobleep]

So, on the first day of the blockade it seems GTR have already messed up on the replacement buses. This week saw plenty of confusion surrounding the fast buses between Brighton and Three Bridges, which usually operate on weekend line closures. Over the last few days, the Twitter team had confirmed that they would NOT be operating due to limited capacity in the Three Bridges car park and passengers would need to change at Haywards Heath, or travel by train to Lewes to connect with a RRB to Three Bridges from there.

This morning, despite GTR's insistence that there would be no direct buses, there have been reports on Twitter (e.g. https://twitter.com/danieljcoomber/status/1096715221987672065) that this is not the case, and the direct services have been kept secret, suggesting that the 'lack of car park space' talk is completely true.

Since the secret buses have become not so secret, it appears that GTR have now pulled these services and sent the buses empty back to the depot ( https://twitter.com/kaya_sm22/status/1096745721846554624). Not even the station managers are aware of what's going on!

In addition to this, I'm told that passengers coming from the east towards Lewes are being put on buses to East Grinstead (which weren't meant to run until next week), causing much confusion up there!

I dread to think how the peak-times of next week will go down!

I've jot read all the posts on here yet as not had time but I was told by a member staff at Haywards Heath railway station, whilst waiting 40 minutes for a bus to turn up, head north (10 February) , that during the blockade, there would be buses every 5 minutes from Three Bridges.

Looking up last week online showd fast and slower buses to Brighton. This was on the not so secret Web Site, National Rail Enquiries

 

[infobleep]

And lifting out the old pre-fab concrete footbridge at Balcombe station on 20th and lifting in a new steel one on 21st. That concrete bridge is 1936 era first install at Gatwick and moved to Balcombe in 1958.

I thought there was going to be drainage and leakage work in Balcombe Tunnel as well but not heard anything to confirm that.

Is the footbridge going to be used anywhere else? E. G. heritage line?

 

[infobleep]

I see the he fast buses are running to Brighton from Three Bridges on Sunday but not Saturday.

Perhaps they feel Saturday will be too busy.

Have they also not run buses on previous Saturdays during the weekend blockades?

Also my thought that there were fast buses in the timetable during the week isn't born out being looking at Real Time Trains as I can't see any cancelled buses on their. So perhaps they never intended to run fast buses

 

[infobleep]

Well if you've been listening to BBC Radio Sussex this morning it's all gone very smoothly so far, enjoy your humble pie! The only gripe seems to be that passengers aren't entitled to delay repay.

The reason given for not running a fast rail replacement service is Three Bridges wouldn't be able to cope with the volume of passengers which is why the intention is for passengers to use the train via Littlehampton.

I thought delay repay applied to replacement buses. Can anyone confirm if this is the car at all?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I thought delay repay applied to replacement buses. Can anyone confirm if this is the car at all?

Some passengers might not be eligible for delay compensation for the fact that their journeys are taking longer than they would if the line were open.

 

[sarahj]

I see the he fast buses are running to Brighton from Three Bridges on Sunday but not Saturday.

Perhaps they feel Saturday will be too busy.

Have they also not run buses on previous Saturdays during the weekend blockades?

Also my thought that there were fast buses in the timetable during the week isn't born out being looking at Real Time Trains as I can't see any cancelled buses on their. So perhaps they never intended to run fast buses

There are ghost buses out there.

It's been dead out there. My train from Seaford was lucky to hit double figs in pass numbers. No queues for buses and even the direct Brighton to London trains were not that full. Car parks not busy either.
Things noted: Southern are pushing the Lewes - East Grinstead run, even diverting some TL trains, pushing it's less busy etc. Alas, the planners are showing via Three Bridges is faster, so all I have got today is . 'Are you sure' when pointing it out.
Funny thing: Left Angerming on a Littlehampton - Brighton stopper. 1 punter left on the platform, in his own little world. My train leaves. He is left alone, looking across at the busy platform opposite. He looks at his phone, he looks across, his phone, he can see the CIS showing Victoria on the other platform, he looks at his phone, he looks across. Suddenly the Victoria train is pulling in and then the penny drops, cue a mad dash over the bridge. (things seens from the back of a 313)
Miffing thing: Seeing a 8 car set running a Brighton to Victoria run. Have we not got any spare stock.
Not thought out thing: Handing out coffee vouchers, after passing the coffee outlets for punters getting on a direct train with no catering.
Sad thing: The food outlets near the bus area at Brighton expecting extra folks passing, but folks being told NO
Waste of money: The temporary roof at Brighton, for no bus queue with lots of staff and no punters to point in the right direction as buses only are stoppers and to Balcombe only!!!

 

[londonboi198o5]

Out of interest, what percentage drop in traffic do you think would occur because it's half-term?

I don't commute regularly on the BML at the moment but I can't say I noticed any significant reduction in passengers at half-term. I don't doubt that there is some reduction and as you say the works have been scheduled accordingly. However, when you say...

"not going to be many people travelling in Monday morning"

... I suspect that you'll be proven wrong.

Guess I wasn’t proven wrong after all then

 

[Bensonby]

Probably naive pie in the sky stuff: but couldn’t the Bluebell Railway have cashed in with some “specials” in the morning and evening, and become a “park and ride” for the railhead at East Grinstead?

 

[JB_B]

Guess I wasn’t proven wrong after all then

From the reports I've heard it certainly sounds that way, yes.

 

[Jona26]

Just passed by Three Bridges. There seem to be plenty of buses and coaches in the car park and also a Police traffic car in the local bus stop layby on the main road stopping cars from parking which normally causes a lot of congestion when cars are picking up or dropping off.

 

[Jona26]

Just seen a RRB arrive at East Grinstead. A grand total of 5 passengers alighted!

6 coaches waiting in the car park.

16.52 from Victoria just arrived and 12 boarded the Cooksbridge & Lewes coach.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Honestly it's not rocket science is it? The sole purpose of the bus is to take passengers from that train to Newhaven and Seaford.

Whether its rocket science or not, if there's no one there to give the driver authority, there's no one there. Uckfield is hardly a London Terminal with dozens of staff milling about

 

[Antman]

Whether its rocket science or not, if there's no one there to give the driver authority, there's no one there. Uckfield is hardly a London Terminal with dozens of staff milling about

The driver can see for themselves if the train has arrived, if it hasn't there will be no passengers on the bus.

 

[Surreytraveller]

The driver can see for themselves if the train has arrived, if it hasn't there will be no passengers on the bus.

Yes, I know. I was responding to your comments in post number 49, where you assume there are staff at Uckfield to tell the driver that there are passengers on the bus.

 

[Antman]

Yes, I know. I was responding to your comments in post number 49, where you assume there are staff at Uckfield to tell the driver that there are passengers on the bus.

Well either way there is not much chance of the bus leaving before the train arrives.

 

[RichardKing]

Well, I'll admit, I'm now eating humble pie! Despite the confusion surrounding the direct Brighton-Three Bridges buses, it seems GTR have actually organised a good replacement bus service. If this can continue for the rest of the week, I'll take my hat off to the management team (for the first time in my life!). I'm surprised that the majority of commuters have taken the advice not to travel this week, and this has probably helped in making the first day of the operation successful.

 

[Harbornite]

Try telling a 6 year old their trip to the seaside is cancelled.

Tough tiddy. The operational needs of the railway are more important than some spoiled kid’s trip (why it’s in February, I don’t know)

 

[Harbornite]

Trip to the seaside in February?

At the end of the day if the work has to be done some time then inconveniencing a few 6-year olds on a discretionary day out at the seaside is the lesser of two evils. And, of course, Brighton isn’t the only seaside in southern England, nor is seaside the only leisure pursuit available.

Anyone unable to tell a 6 year old that is someone who shouldn't be in charge of a 6 year old.

Indeed. Some people.