Stumped by 7 miles

Thursday 7th September 2023

We must keep investing in our railway infrastructure to stand a chance of meeting net zero targets. Motorists aren’t going to be persuaded to leave the car at home if rail isn’t offering capacity and convenience and an effective alternative to driving.

Despite the Governments recently reported ‘cold feet’ over actively pursuing the ‘green agenda’ there are some significant rail projects recently completed (Crossrail) or underway: HS2 being the obvious example (aside from its ‘paused’ Euston) along with East-West Rail and the TransPennine Route Upgrade while the DfT’s Restoring Your Railway projects are also very welcome to see (eg Okehampton re-opened and the Ashington line well underway in Northumberland) as well as numerous station re-openings (seven this year alone in England and many more in progress) with Scotland’s railways also continually expanding (Levenmouth currently under construction)… so why is it that reinstating seven miles of track between Uckfield and Lewes never seems to hit the mark?

I was recently contacted by Brian Abbott from the Wealden Line Campaign drawing my attention to the Group’s continual lobbying to restore this missing rail link and inviting me to write about it.

Without any doubt, along with the missing link between Skipton and Colne, they’re the two most tenacious campaign groups who, in the face of coming up against so many closed doors, nevertheless doggedly keep going to raise awareness of their causes. You have to admire their determination.

Neither Uckfield-Lewes or Skipton-Colne feature in the DfT’s current short list of projects that are in receipt of funding for business case evaluation so nothing is going to happen any time soon, or longer term, but the case they put forward is never short of passion and logic, it’s just the finances that always seem to be the problem although when you see the way costs are going on HS2 it does make you wonder whether adding Uckfield – Lewes on to that mushrooming bill would hardly be noticed.

The Wealden Line Campaign is well used to disappointments and coming up against closed doors. Over the years they’ve been given many positive noises and commitments from Ministers – the Group’s website provides a litany of supportive statements from Secretaries of States, Chancellor of the Exchequers and others – but nothing ever comes of them.

A full on study undertaken by Network Rail in 2008 concluded whilst restoring the link would be a nice to have and was technically feasible there was no economic case for it.

But the counter point from the campaign group was the study was far too narrow in its focus merely looking at benefits of connecting Lewes with Uckfield as well as improvements to connectivity within East Sussex whereas the Group argue seven miles of restored track could offer far more strategic benefits, not least an alternative route between Brighton and London to the main line via Gatwick Airport.

That’s why in 2010 the Wealden Line Campaign launched BML2, suggesting restoring the missing seven miles of track would create a second Brighton Main Line. To overcome the problem of trains arriving into Lewes facing the “wrong way” before continuing to Brighton, the Group suggest a new section of two-and-a-half miles of track including a one-and-a-half miles long tunnel under the South Downs at Ashcombe to connect to the Coastway East line east of Falmer, which would also provide improved connections to Brighton & Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium (opened in 2011 after the aforementioned 2008 study) and both Sussex University and Brighton University campuses located there.

To complete the picture the Group also envisages taking over the line currently used by the Spa Valley Railway between Tunbridge Wells West and Eridge and provide a new connection northwards so trains could access the line towards Edenbridge from Tunbridge Wells and vice versa.

Even more ambitious is the idea of building a new line from East Croydon through another new tunnel to connect with Canary Wharf and Stratford in what is called the “London Phase” of the BML2 project but comes from a privately funded consortium known as the London & Southern Counties Railways.

To me, this proposal looks like a coloured line on a map too many, but I don’t doubt the sincerity of those proposing it.

Meanwhile, back to the seven miles of missing track in East Sussex, Transport for the South East (TfSE) published its 30 year Transport Strategy in 2020 and addressing four challenges it lists for Inter-urban journeys in the Region it includes the solution to “deliver better inter-urban rail connectivity such as direct rail services from Brighton/Lewes to Uckfield.”

TfSE has no delegated powers so the DfT is not committed to the strategy’s contents but including reference to Lewes-Uckfield as well as commensurate electrification between Uckfield and Hurst Green has given the Group renewed hope. TfSE submitted its Strategic Investment Plan to the DfT for approval in July. The Wealden Line Group’s latest newsletter notes this Plan also contains “a colossal and controversial package of new road projects running into billions of pounds, whilst the infinitely more valuable and appropriate rail schemes pale by comparison. This is an unsustainable position – as unsustainable as believing we can simply carry on building more and more roads – and just as delusional as the 1950-60s when governments thought everyone owning cars was the solution.”

When Brian contacted me I asked him to let me have an idea of how much it would cost to reinstate the seven miles of track. He pointed me to the 2008 Network Rail study which at that time came up with a total estimated cost (including 30% contingency) of £143.3 million with a further £39.9 million for a double track option.

The former works out at £11.9m per kilometre which Network Rail points out in a cost comparison table in its report is cheaper than the A27 Beddingham to Southeram improvement scheme and in the same ballpark as the reopening of the Airdrie to Bathgate line in Scotland.

However, the cost estimate didn’t include the Campaign Group’s proposed new line through a tunnel at Ashcombe to reach the Coastway East line referred to earlier which would undoubtedly increase the costs. I understand building a tunnel means costs per kilometre increase by four times although-each circumstance will be different.

Somehow I don’t think I’ll ever see Lewes and Uckfield reconnected by rail in my lifetime, but I admire Brian and his colleagues for their dogged determination to keep the campaign alive and indeed persuading me to include a blog about it today.

And one final point for me: if the tracks hadn’t been lifted between Uckfield and Lewes in May 1969 there’d be no question this line should be closed now, in 2023.

Roger French

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