Derek Deedman

The winter timetable starts on 9 December 2007 and, as you may be aware, it will include significant changes to West Coastway and Arun Valley services.

The key changes are:

• Faster trains from Chichester to London with most trains running non-stop between Barnham and Horsham.

• A new through service every hour between Brighton and Southampton.

• Faster trains between Brighton and Portsmouth.

• Bognor Regis and Littlehampton will both have two trains per hour to London for most of the day.

• New services from Littlehampton to Portsmouth.

Many rail users should benefit from the new services. It is also hoped that others who may not previously have used the railway will be encouraged to give trains a try. All passengers who use West Coastway and Arun Valley services are being advised to check the new timetable as their train times may well have changed.

These changes are brought about by the renewed South West Trains’ (SWT) franchise whose trains will no longer serve Brighton and West Coastway stations from this December. Through the changes, the same or a better quality of train service should be provided for the vast majority of current passengers – about 84 per cent. However, these changes unfortunately mean that for a minority of passengers’ journey times may increase (for example journeys from Arundel, Amberley, Pulborough, Billinghurst and Christ’s Hospital to London may take up to 8 minutes longer) or a change of train may be required where it is not currently necessary (for example Littlehampton to Brighton passengers will need to change at Hove though journey times will be faster).

To help communicate the changes to passengers information roadshows will be staged at larger stations along the route. It is hoped that this will ensure that passengers are aware of the potential change to their service and also of the new opportunities that there will be.

The nearest roadshow to Steyning will be at the following station:

If you would like to arrange a specific time on any of this day to speak to a manager about these changes, for example the west coast timetable expert, contact Yvonne yvonne.leslie@southernrailway.com to pre-arrange this.

Brighton Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy Timetable for Dec 2008 – Consultation

The proposals for the December 2008 timetable are now available for consultation. If you have not received the consultation document and would like to, please contact Yvonne yvonne.leslie@southernrailway.com

Derek Deedman said that he hoped the changes would make it easy to convince people to transfer from car travel to rail, but, as usual Steyning area people will not be able to see a road show on the changes at ‘our’ local station - Shoreham-By-Sea. but would have to go to Worthing instead.