Southern coastal passengers to benefit from more choice, convenience and comfort

• Southern overhauls timetable following successful consultation with local stakeholders
• More journey options between Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings and West Worthing
• More regular services plus better connections for Marshlink passengers
• Modern trains replace UK’s oldest electric mainline fleet

Passengers using Southern services along the Sussex coast can look forward to more choice, convenience and comfort on many routes when the rail company introduces its summer timetable, along with modern trains to replace the UK’s oldest electric mainline fleet, from Sunday 21 May.

With local changes on other Sussex and South London routes [detailed in Editors’ notes], Southern is advising all customers to check the new times on the company’s website or an online journey planner.

Southern has collaborated with local stakeholders including rail user groups, Hastings Borough Council and Sussex Rail Community Partnership, which has enabled a re-write of the local timetable to better meet customer needs.

Jenny Saunders, Customer Services Director for Southern, said: “We’re making coastal train journeys better for our customers, and attracting new passengers to rail. I want to thank the local groups who were actively involved in helping us shape a timetable that improves connections and provides a better frequency of services by spacing trains out more regularly.

“Across the network, we’re making changes on several routes, so we’re advising all our customers to check for new train times, via our website or National Rail Enquiries, well in advance.”

Yolanda Laybourne, Chair of Bexhill Rail Action Group, said: “Southern's planning team have sought not only to overcome the challenges by thinking differently and, in our view very innovatively, but have set our railway up for a return to growth by taking a fresh look at the timetable, adjusting it for passenger benefit, and, with the support of local stakeholders, user groups, councils and local businesses, to achieve a better overall output.”

Route 1: East Coastway between Brighton and Hastings

Analysing detailed passenger counts and working with local rail user groups and councils, Southern has redesigned services on the East Coastway for commuters, day-trippers and students between Brighton and Ashford International across the whole week.

Southern has also responded to changing commuter habits post-pandemic, by shortening some Monday and Friday trains when more people are working from home, to enhance other services.

Improvements include a new off-peak Brighton to Eastbourne service, which with other changes, doubles the number of journey options between the two resorts. There will also be two journeys hour between Hastings and Brighton all day and not just in the peak.

To make the timetable simpler, departure times have been moved to a ‘clock-face’ pattern, so trains run at the same time each hour without big gaps in service. Some journeys will be up to five minutes faster.

Route 2: Marshlink

On the Marshlink line between Hastings and Ashford International, the same service level will operate seven days a week, introducing hourly services at Three Oaks and Winchelsea. The Sunday operation also means additional stops at Pevensey & Westham, Cooden Beach and Collington. More evenly spaced departures will mean much-reduced maximum waiting times, and thereby more reliable connections at Ashford International.

Route 3: West Coastway

Peak-time services between Brighton and West Worthing increase from two to four per hour. This uplift is expected to make longer-distance services on the West Coastway less busy.

An additional morning service from Chichester to Brighton will replace the Great Western Railway service withdrawn last year.

New trains

At the same time as the new schedules come into operation, Southern will replace the country’s oldest mainline electric trains with more modern, reliable and comfortable 21^st-century rolling stock, transforming passenger comfort and service reliability along the coast between Portsmouth, Brighton and Lewes. [See Editors’ notes for more detail.]

Other Southern and Thameslink services

[See Editors’ notes for details of changes to other Southern and Thameslink routes in Sussex.]

Ends

Editors' notes

Summer timetable 2023: summary of key changes

Southern

East Coastway

With the input of rail user groups and local councils, we have redesigned Southern services running on the East Coastway between Brighton and Ashford International across the whole week.

Features include:

• A new off-peak Brighton to Eastbourne service, which together with connections between trains provides four departure options per hour for a Brighton to Eastbourne journey, up from two, and two to three per hour for a Hastings to Brighton weekday journey, instead of two all day.
• Clock-face scheduling, where train times repeat each hour, at even intervals between trains for more convenience. From Brighton to Hastings, for instance, instead of two departures at 30 and 41 minutes past the hour there will be up to three departures per hour, with a maximum spacing of 30 minutes.
• Journey time improvements (up to five minutes on some Brighton-Eastbourne services)
• Improvements to Marshlink services (Hastings to Ashford International): the same timetable will operate seven days a week, introducing hourly services at Three Oaks and Winchelsea. The Sunday operation also means additional stops at Pevensey & Westham, Cooden Beach and Collington. More evenly-spaced departures will mean much-reduced waiting times and thereby more reliable connections at Ashford International.

To accommodate these changes and to reflect changes in passenger numbers on particular days of the week:

• The Lewes to Brighton weekday service will switch to four trains per hour all day, from the current pattern of three per hour off-peak and five at peak times.
• The Saturday timetable of two direct services per hour between Brighton and Hastings will be replaced by the new weekday schedule, with one direct and one indirect journey per hour (changing at Lewes or Eastbourne).
• Ore to London Victoria services will now run with eight rather than twelve carriages on Mondays and Fridays.

West Coastway

• Peak time services between Brighton and West Worthing increase from two to four per hour, replacing the lightly used shuttle service between Brighton and Hove.
• An additional morning (07:43) service from Chichester to Brighton will replace the Great Western Railway service withdrawn last year.

To accommodate these changes and to reflect changes in passenger numbers:

• The 16:51 Brighton to Littlehampton train will now run only to West Worthing. Passengers for Littlehampton will be able to connect to the London Victoria to Littlehampton service to complete their journey.
• The current 17:51 departure from Littlehampton to Brighton will now start at West Worthing at 18:12, so will no longer call at Littlehampton, Angmering, Goring-by-Sea or Durrington-on-Sea. Additionally, on its way to Brighton it will no longer call at East Worthing, Lancing, Southwick, Fishersgate or Aldrington.
• Times of some evening peak services at East Worthing, Fishersgate and Aldrington will change.

New trains

Newer Class 377 and 387 trains, which feature air conditioning and accessible toilets, will replace the 47-year-old Class 313s on five routes: Portsmouth-Brighton, Portsmouth & Southsea-Littlehampton, Bognor Regis-Littlehampton, Brighton-Lewes and Brighton-Seaford. On the busiest route between Portsmouth and Brighton, the trains will run with an extra (fourth) carriage, creating a third more space for passengers.

East Grinstead to London Victoria

In response to passenger and stakeholder requests:

• One additional mid-morning service will run in each direction to provide a half hourly frequency throughout the morning.
• One additional late-evening service from London Victoria will create a half-hourly service through to 23:22, Monday-Friday.

To allow for these changes, frequency on quieter services in the early morning and late evening on Sundays will reduce from half-hourly to hourly before 10:00 and after 20:00.

Horsham, Dorking, Epsom, Sutton to London Victoria via Hackbridge

Additional peak services will now call at Ewell East. This will change departure and arrival times slightly between Cheam and Dorking.

Uckfield to London Bridge

To better match demand, the 05:31 and 08:33 Uckfield to London Bridge departures will now run with five carriages versus three. The 07:33 Uckfield to London Bridge departure will run with six carriages versus eight.

Epsom to London Bridge via Norwood Junction

Following a review of demand, weekday off-peak and weekend services will run with four or five carriages instead of instead of 8 or 10. Peak services will be unchanged at ten carriages.

Thameslink (Sussex services)

Littlehampton to London Bridge

The one train per peak Thameslink service between Littlehampton and London Bridge will transfer to Southern. There is no change to departure or arrival times, but services will not call at Gatwick Airport.

Bedford to Three Bridges / Horsham to London Bridge – Sundays

Following a user-group suggestion, to improve the consistency of services, the one train per hour Sunday service between Horsham and London Bridge will be replaced by extending one of the two per hour services between Bedford and Three Bridges (via London Bridge) to Horsham. This also means there will now be direct Sunday services between Horsham, Littlehaven, Ifield, Crawley and London Blackfriars, Farringdon, and St Pancras International for the first time.

Bedford to Three Bridges – Overnight services

The 02:53 Bedford to Brighton service will now run Gatwick Airport to Brighton only, and the 03:15 Three Bridges to Bedford service will no longer run. This will mean that cross-London frequency is now hourly, rather than half-hourly between the hours of approximately 03:30 and 04:30.