Some considerable changes to the Brighton Main Line in May 2020: the Gatwick Airport station upgrade commences, resulting in Platform 7 being taken out of use - though it appears the track is still available for passing trains, and is used as such in the evening peak.
The opportunity has been taken for a slightly wider recast of the Brighton Main Line: all overtaking moves, splits and joins at Haywards Heath have been removed. This has been achieved by the following:
The off-peak pattern of departures from Brighton towards London thus becomes:
Changes in the peak are more limited, since there the Southern services to Eastbourne / Littlehampton already operate separately with no split/join. The main changes are to remove the need for overtaking moves at Haywards Heath; note however that Brighton retains 8tph to and from London in the peaks.
A number of additional trains now non-stop Gatwick in the evening to account for the closure of platform 7:
Bizarrely, the 16:43 Victoria-Brighton is currently in as a Q path (run as required), being booked through platform 7 at Gatwick - I presume this is pending a solution being found to allow this to be platformed at Gatwick.
EDIT: I missed the fact that the Gatwick Express services that run between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria only are not in the timetable - hence there is a net reduction of 2tph through Gatwick.
The opportunity has been taken for a slightly wider recast of the Brighton Main Line: all overtaking moves, splits and joins at Haywards Heath have been removed. This has been achieved by the following:
- Removal of Southern services between Brighton and London Victoria off-peak (currently xx:25/55 off Victoria).
- Southern services between London Victoria and Eastbourne move to xx:24/54 (as they currently are in the peaks), with no portion working.
- Southern services between London Victoria and Littlehampton move to xx:15/45 (currently xx:16/46), with no portion working.
The off-peak pattern of departures from Brighton towards London thus becomes:
- xx:09/39 [currently xx:18/48] Gatwick Express to London Victoria, calling Gatwick Airport
- xx:12/42 [currently xx:08/38] Thameslink to Cambridge, now calling Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Balcombe, Three Bridges, Gatwick Airport, East Croydon, London Bridge etc.
- xx:25/55 [currently xx:26/58] Thameslink to Bedford, now calling all stations to Gatwick, except Balcombe
- [Existing xx:03/33 Southern to Victoria removed]
Changes in the peak are more limited, since there the Southern services to Eastbourne / Littlehampton already operate separately with no split/join. The main changes are to remove the need for overtaking moves at Haywards Heath; note however that Brighton retains 8tph to and from London in the peaks.
A number of additional trains now non-stop Gatwick in the evening to account for the closure of platform 7:
- All Victoria-Littlehampton trains from 16:54 to 18:54 (fast East Croydon-Haywards Heath)
- 16:45 and 17:45 Victoria-Ore (calling Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Horley, Haywards Heath, etc.)
- 17:32 and 18:32 London Bridge-Eastbourne (fast East Croydon-Haywards Heath)
Bizarrely, the 16:43 Victoria-Brighton is currently in as a Q path (run as required), being booked through platform 7 at Gatwick - I presume this is pending a solution being found to allow this to be platformed at Gatwick.
EDIT: I missed the fact that the Gatwick Express services that run between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria only are not in the timetable - hence there is a net reduction of 2tph through Gatwick.
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