Wealden line is best bet

The Bluebell Railway’s Western Extension Project (WEP) is a most welcome development in furthering the success of this clearly outstanding preserved railway.

However, Howard Johnston’s whimsical supposition that it could be “another Brighton-London route?” is misguided because it is the Haywards Heath-Brighton section that is the route’s predominant fallibility, which the WEP cannot overcome.

Furthermore, it is fanciful to imagine that the rural villages of Ardingly, Horsted Keynes or Kingscote could ever warrant a business case for government support to enable its return to the network (quite apart from annihilating the truly venerable Bluebell enterprise).

Only the Wealden (Uckfield) Line can provide the shortest, fastest alternative route between London, Brighton and the Sussex coast. Resilience and additional capacity are key reasons, but it is connectivity which has also come to the fore across the South East, where large-scale housing development in the line’s catchment area continues apace.

This is why the powerful subnational body Transport for the South East is now determinedly pressing ahead with reinstatement, redoubling and electrifying Wealden’s rail network between Lewes, Tunbridge Wells and Oxted for ‘main line operations’. Work on reconnecting these substantial populations and rail hubs is under way.

Further information on this may be found on both the Wealden Line Campaign and BML2 websites.

Brian Hart, Uckfield