Lewes to Uckfield railway

(From the October 2006 edition of the Lewes Handbook)

In 1969, the County Council did what even Dr Beeching had failed to do - it forced the closure of the railway line between Lewes and Uckfield. This was to facilitate the construction of the Phoenix Causeway road bridge.

As short-sighted decisions go, this really takes the biscuit. It left the line from London through Eridge straggling like a withered leg down to a stump at Uckfield, with an absurd gap of under 10 miles to the rail junction at Lewes.

Ever since then, there have been vigorous calls for the line to be reopened, most notably by the Wealden Line Campaign, led by the indefatigable Brian Hart. I myself have been campaigning on the issue since I was first elected to the local council in 1987.

Now don't say it too loudly, but the day when trains will again run between the towns may at last be in sight. The County Council, perhaps conscious of its historical faux pas, has established a project board, which includes representatives of both District Councils, and both local MPs.

More importantly, the Board is applying a hard-headed approach to achieve the reopening. After 20 years, it is all too clear we can expect little help, if any, from the government. Nationally, the Channel Tunnel link aside, it has opened or reopened less than 10 miles of railway since it took office in 1997. The rail industry itself has been sympathetic, but only until it is time to get the cheque book out.

The various studies over the years have agreed that the reopened line would make an operational profit. The difficulty has always been the capital costs of reinstatement. Of course when it comes to roads, this is never a problem for the government, but then they still believe that money spent on roads is investment, while money spent on rail is subsidy.

So rather than wait indefinitely for the Department for Transport's mindset to change, the Board is looking to private developers to meet much of the costs of reinstatement. After all, we are facing the prospect of a huge increase in housing in this area over the next 20 years. So why not get the developers to build close to the railway line, particularly in places like Uckfield, Crowborough and Newhaven, and use the money quite properly available as community gain? That also has the advantage of placing the new houses within easy reach of public transport, so lessening the strains on the road network.

The Lewes-Uckfield line would provide a through connection between the Wealden area and Lewes and Brighton, which should relieve the A26 and help our local economy. The reinstatement is also the only, or certainly the cheapest, practical way to increase overall capacity between the south coast and London. The Brighton line is at capacity with simply no more train paths available at peak time. Reopening Lewes-Uckfield comes a lot cheaper than building a new Balcombe viaduct and a new Balcombe tunnel and offers the only practical alternative to ever-more crowded trains or exorbitant fare rises to price people off the trains.

Reopening will be good for the economy, good for the environment and good for social mobility. It is one of my political ambitions to be there for the reopening, indeed to help cut the ribbon. I am beginning to believe I might just make it.

|Home

|Issues

|Local

|National

|International

|Press

|Norman and his work

|Useful Links

|Contact Norman

|Site map and Search

|Norman's flickr page

|Norman's Facebook page

|National LibDem site