RICHARD MADGE of Bexhill Rail Action Group explains an alternative proposal for Brighton-Ashford ‘Marshlink’ services
The ‘overlapping split’ is an alternative proposal made by rail user groups in response to plans by Govia Thameslink Railway and the Department for Transport to replace the through Brighton-Ashford service with two separate services – a Brighton-Hastings train and a Hastings-Ashford train. This would involve through passengers having to change trains at Hastings.
This alternative proposal involves two overlapping services:
￭ a Brighton-Hastings four-car or eight-car electric service; and
￭ an Eastbourne-Ashford two-car diesel service.
ADVANTAGES?
What are the advantages? According to GTR’s passenger survey in 2016, approximately 45% of passengers making journeys to/from the Marshlink are cross-Hastings journeys. Moreover, in Phase One of the consultation, over 63% of individual respondents, and all rail user groups, indicated that they wished for the Ashford service to continue further west – either to Eastbourne, or to continue through to Brighton as now. Only 36% of respondents supported splitting the service at Hastings.
Under this counter-proposal, Eastbourne, Bexhill and St Leonards W…
