| 27 August : Lewes - Uckfield makes RAIL news |
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Leading industry magazine RAIL hits the news-stands across the UK today with a six-page article "The Battle of Wealden" focusing on the long campaign to re-establish the Lewes-Uckfield link. The first of a major two part feature, today's instalment deals with past attempts to re-open the line under British Rail and more recently with private sector involvement led by Kilbride, culminating in last month's abortive report. This has already been widely discredited and RAIL asks why key positive statements by Network Rail, present in early drafts, were systematically cut out of the final version. In the next article in a fortnight's time, RAIL will review Network Rail's useful engineering study and investigate why the feasibility report, conducted by East Sussex County Council, ended up being so negative. Many questions remain as to why the Lewes-Uckfield project - expected to be a trail-blazer among the English re-opening schemes - was coupled-up to what is generally accepted to be a failed business case. Welcoming RAIL's interest in the campaign, against a backdrop of successful schemes in Scotland and Wales, Campaign Director Brian Hart said: "If we cannot open seven and a half miles of line, with largely intact trackbed, in the busy South East, with obvious local, regional and strategic benefits, what chance is there for any other English rail reopenings?" |
Comments
“Re-opening Lewes-Uckfield moves us towards a greater sanity and more sensible approach to transport strategy which meets the needs of the wider community”
Lewes Mayor, Michael Chartier (February 2009)