Residents who rely on trains for work and other access are facing delays to journey times and possible rail replacement services for nine days when works start in February 2022.
An announcement from Network Rail has indicated that the tracks that lie between Lewes and Three Bridges, Brighton will close for nine days from Saturday 19th February until Sunday 27th February 2022, with other works along selected weekends set to take place both before and after this central closure takes place.
The works taking place will involve Network Rail spending £11m renovating a junction near Haywards Heath and also building a new underpass at Hassocks.
This is the next set of major work to be undertaken in the city, after the closure of the line between Brighton and Hove for two weeks at the end of September.
In a statement, Network Rail said that they appreciated the patience of the passengers in a very busy time that may feel like constant works on the railway, however by completing the works in one- and two-week blocks, they are able to get more work done in much quicker times, and reduce the number of affected weekends and disruption that would be necessary.
Brighton’s Main line is a crucial route for hundreds of daily trains that travel all across the south of England and therefore is subject to large amounts of maintenance work to continue to provide its high level of service.
Therefore consistent work is necessary to help keep Hove and the next major projects all progressing the offerings and building back after the pandemic.
The alternative solution would be to have rail passengers face up to 20 full weekend closures and further multiple bank holiday closures which would result in an unacceptable amount of disruption to passengers, local residents and other stakeholders who would suffer.
Photo Credit: Alexander Popov
