The chancellor and the government have repeatedly been telling the public that they need to fill a financial black hole, so why did they maintain the freeze on fuel duty for another year? £4.2bn could have been collected in the next year, which would have gone a long way to ‘balancing the books’ and reducing the UK’s record debt.
Instead, the Chancellor has chosen to penalise the less well-off by raising standard bus fares by 50% to £3. Yet research shows that this would only bring the Treasury extra revenue of about £150mn a year. At the same time, the Government are going to increase rail fares next year by 4.6%.
Worse still, the Restoring Your Railway Scheme was cancelled in July 2024 by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The cancellation is expected to save only £85 million.
A catalyst for economic development in East Sussex
In the budget speech, the Chancellor referred to rail improvement such as finishing HS2 in London as providing a catalyst for private investment in the local area. I believe that the same applies to a much less costly scheme here in Sussex, by building only seven miles of track between Lewes and Uckfield. This will be a catalyst for private investment and economic development in East Sussex.
Transport for the South East (TfSE), the shadow regional transport body, already have the rail link in their Strategic Investment Plan. Under London-Sussex Coast Rail (section 3.1 of the Plan) they say:
“This package addresses key bottlenecks on the Brighton Main Line, enabling faster, more reliable services and increases in decarbonised capacity across rail operations in the region. Additionally, there are aspirations to reinstate the railways between Uckfield – Lewes and, potentially, Tunbridge Wells West – Tunbridge Wells to increase resilience of rail connectivity between the South Coast and London whilst creating a new east – west passenger rail service. These results should give investors confidence in the level of growth that could be realised through investing in the Brighton Main Line corridor.
This package could deliver a very significant 20% increase in rail patronage compared to ‘business as usual’ forecasts – at least 20,000 fewer car trips each weekday, more than 85,000 additional trips by rail each weekday.”
TfSE also supports the Hurst Green to Uckfield electrification.
In 2019, I wrote to the then Secretary of State for Transport commenting on the frequent rail closures on the Brighton Main Line, resulting in the inconvenience for travellers of regular rail replacement bus services operating from Lewes to Three Bridges, saying: “If the Lewes to Uckfield line had not been closed in 1968 there would be an alternative route to London, but government policy is to put ‘all eggs in one basket’ and route all trains up the crowded Brighton Main Line!”
Strong local support for reopening the line
Despite the negative approach by East Sussex County Council, which only currently provides tacit support for the line, they acknowledge that the subject of restoration of this link “continues to be of interest”. My earlier article in Sussex Bylines received over 15,000 hits shortly after its publication, which suggests public interest in the link is high.
Recently on BBC Politics South East, both Mims Davies, the Conservative MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield, and James MacCleary, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said they support the reopening of the link. Even more recently, the Sussex Express had a double page spread on the history and possibilities for the future of the Lewes to Uckfield link.
With the reopening of seven miles of track and the reconnection of an existing track to the main line near Eridge, linking to Tunbridge Wells, we could be looking at a rail project serving a population of over 750,000 people…and that’s without the wider commuter and tourist traffic that would be able to use the line.
TfSE say the next stage is a feasibility study. Let’s get on with that!
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Vic Ient is the organiser of Lewes Rail who are campaigning for the reopening of the line.
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