TRANSPORT FOR THE SOUTH EAST – INVESTMENT PLANS/SCATE – SOUTH COAST ALLIANCE FOR TRANSPORT AND ENVIRONMENT/BUSES – ISSUES AND PERFORMANCE/EASTBOURNE TOWN CENTRE PLANS AND SAFER ROUNDABOUT DESIGNS/LOW TRAFFIC NEIGHBOURHOODS, CARGO BIKES AND MAIL BY RAIL/BUS SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN AND LTP4/1954 – HAILSHAM TO EASTBOURNE: 54 MINUTES BY TRAIN AND BUS LANES 20 YEARS LATE, AND COUNTING/GLYNE GAP – RAVENSIDE STATION – TIME FOR A RE-THINK/PLEA FROM A YOUNG PERSON STRANDED IN THE IN HIGH WEALD/NATIONAL PARK – EXCEAT BRIDGE EXPANSION APPROVED – MORE TRAFFIC EXPECTED/SLEEPER TO BERLIN/SCOTRAIL PEAK FARES SCRAPPED/GATWICK EXPANSION OPPOSED
A long overdue update….Let’s go!
TRANSPORT FOR THE SOUTH EAST (TFSE) ‘STRATEGIC INVESTMENT PLAN’ (SIP)
Our non-statutory regional transport planning body launched its SIP in July (Link to TFSE website below), and we chose to submit a response (Transport Futures East Sussex – TFES). My ‘jottings notes’ on that presentation are also below. together with our submission. I hope the ‘jottings’ give a flavour of the day! National organisation, Transport Action Network (TAN) also submitted a cogent response – link also here. Their summary can be read below and there’s a link to the full document:
Transport strategy (Transport for the South East TFSE)
Transport Action Network – TAN: Summary of Response:
Introduction
Transport Action Network (TAN) would like to welcome the opportunity to comment on Transport for the South East’s (TfSE) draft Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). This response covers our main concerns and doesn’t necessarily cover every detail or scheme within the SIP.
Headline concerns
While TAN welcomes the high level of investment proposed for rail schemes in the SIP, it has a number of critical concerns as follows:
1. The business as usual approach despite claims to the contrary.
2. The large number of road schemes (over 90), at least some of which appear undercosted, e.g. the Lower Thames Crossing, with the phasing of over 50 road schemes to be built by 2030, which will drive up traffic and emissions. This is at the most critical period in which we need to take urgent action to reduce carbon emissions
3. The phasing of mass transit and rail, a large proportion of which are pushed back to the medium and long term, when they are needed sooner rather than later. They are also at risk of not being delivered, an issue not addressed within the SIP
4. The inclusion of active travel is welcome but it feels very much an afterthought with inconsistent approaches to it across the region and a total reliance on Local Highways Authorities (LHAs) prioritising the work which is unlikely to happen in many areas based on current performance, e.g. East and West Sussex.
5. The use of misleading statistics in the SIP, such as it could lead to 4 million fewer car journeys when the reality is it will lead to an increase in traffic (page 11). Most people will read this as relating to conditions today, not against some fictional future.
6. The comparison of the SIP’s projected carbon pathway against a highly unlikely scenario as it would mean a reversal of Government policy on Electric Vehicles (EVs). This gives a false impression of the SIP delivering significant carbon savings, when in reality it is making things worse.
Final word on the TFSE Plan:
In a climate and biodiversity crisis, emphasis on acceleration of road schemes, with the brake pedal on proven effective alternatives, makes no sense. The statement at the TFSE launch that ‘regular meetings and dialogues are held with other Transport Boards in England (statutory and non-statutory) in theory raises the prospect of fast tracking the best and most sustainable ‘tried and tested’ measures already adopted or in process of adoption elsewhere in the country. TFSE is a flagship for a great swathe of the country and should be leading the pack with ‘best practice’ – and not the ‘road scheme led’ approach exemplified by the massively costly and potentially damaging off-line A27. If better practice elsewhere exists, let’s have it here – and soon.
SOUTH COAST ALLIANCE FOR TRANSPORT AND ENVIRONMENT – SCATE EAST SUSSEX
January 2023 Newsletter below –
Now is the time to challenge the nightmare road scheme pursued by local politicians well past their sell-by dates. We have an opportunity with the parliamentary Transport Select Committee about to scrutinise National Highways road schemes in or about to enter the pipeline as part of the Road Investment Strategy (RIS – 3). It also wants to learn lessons from the current RIS – 2. We all have an opportunity to point out flaws in the RIS approach, such as its ‘mono-modal’ (car based) character and therefore its tendency to develop schemes which omit more ambitious (and almost always cheaper) integrated strategies across all modes and necessarily linked to sustainable planning principles: in simple terms, ‘to avoid even more car-based, traffic and congestion generating developments! Ditch the A27 off-line idea.
The Chair of the Transport Select Committee is Iain Stewart, MP. His e-mail address: iain.stewart.mp@parliament.uk
BUSES – CURRENT ISSUES AND PERFORMANCE – CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR:
THE BRIGHTON AND HOVE EXPERIENCE
A basic service operated on Christmas day across the city carrying 3,000 passengers;
Boxing Day services carried a further 30,000 passengers across the network: that’s almost equal to pre-Covid levels of patronage -while in general, patronage on Brighton and Hove buses are at 85 – 90% of pre-Covid levels. (Nick Hill Brighton and Hove Buses).
The determinants of high bus patronage are well known and where in place, demonstrably succeed in delivering for communities with reliable services, reduced traffic and better air quality. Key determinants crucial to successful bus operation are somewhat lacking in East Sussex towns but evidently present and working well in Brighton and Hove which, unlike Hastings, Bexhill and Eaastbourne, has a large and appreciative constituency of regular bus users across all groups and ages. That’s hugely important.
January 1st, 2023. Here is a sample of New Year’s Day services on the Eastbourne Station Display screen:

There are no Stagecoach services shown here – the company doesn’t run any services on New Year’s Day.
A basic servicewas being provided by Cuckmere Buses in the immediate and surrounding area to Hailsham. Thank goodness for that. Parts of Old Town are lucky to have the Brighton and Hove, Nos 12/13X, as in years past. We wonder how long this anomaly can prevail where thousands of citizens are denied access to their needs and wants on the first day of any new year. Meanwhile, Brighton and Hove buses served coastal areas of the county between Brighton and Eastbourne and Brighton and Tunbridge Wells via Lewes, Ringmer, Uckfield and Crowborough.
ON THE BUSES – POST COVID RECOVERY: VARIABLE
With London Transport (TfL) experiencing 90% of pre-Covid passenger levels, with some routes close to normal (national press reports), Stagecoach in East Sussex appear to be heading in the right direction, with 82-83% recovery, though concessionary take-up is lower. (Stagecoach reply to query). There’s hope that the £2.00 flat fare introduction (see link) now until March), and the very popular £5.00 Day Ticket will boost passenger numbers (though recent cuts won’t help). Widespread and conspicuous publicity is required and local authorities have a major role to play in promoting bus travel.
Government launches £2 bus fare campaign |
See Also ‘Travelog Lewes’website here:
As well as ‘at station’ bus times display (as above) there are no technical reasonswhy the ‘end of carriage’ display panels recently installed on Southern trains should not carry information on station arrival times and bus connections at upcoming station stops: perhaps that’s the ultimate plan? The current displays of ‘pleasing scenes and reunions’, etc, are a bit wearing by the time you’ve been on board for any length of time. This one is typical:

Good information is key: the recent cuts to services arrived before the timetable displays at bus stops at many locations in East Sussex had been changed: they were weeks out of date. We saw people stranded at bus stops in Hastings and Hawkhurst. In September, we also came across a Dutch couple in Battle looking for bus information at the town centre bus stop where there were no displays at all. This must be avoided in future.
AS £41.1m BSIP FUNDING ANNOUNCED FOR EAST SUSSEX, SERVICE CUTS BEGIN IN KENT
One particularly painful cut was the withdrawal of the Stagecoach Sunday349 link through Hawkhurst to Cranbrook, connecting with the Arriva 5 to Maidstone so providing a cross border service between Hastings and Maidstone via Bodiam Castle. The Hastings – Hawkhurst service continues. Travelling on the final day and using the link section between Hawkhurst and Cranbrook for three return trips, I noted 27 individual trips over the link. There were five return trips on the day, so the numbers would almost certainly have been greater. Of the 27, nine used the 349/5 connection and of those, 7 were making employment related journeys. Losing the facility of this Sunday bus will affect the lives of quite a few people, causing considerable inconvenience, misery or even loss of work opportunities. Timings now make it impossible for Bodiam residents to do a Sunday shop in Hawkhurst by bus.
The Sunday service in this form arose from a community campaign in which TFES played a role, hosted by Rother District Council and including representation from both sides of the East Sussex/Kent border to restore the Sunday bus to Hawkhurst via Bodiam Castle. Fruitful collaboration between Stagecoach, Arriva, East Sussex and Kent County Councils, Parish Councils and a bit of creative thinking brought about the link. The current loss of the link is due to a funding shortfall at Kent County Council (KCC). The cost of the link – £160 per Sunday/Bank Holiday over a year – is the equivalent one third of the cost of a modest family car. An appeal has been made to KCC. This is not Bus Service Improvement.
BELOW – LAST CONNECTING STAGECOACH/ARRIVA SUNDAY SERVICES AT CRANBROOK – OCTOBER 23rd 2022

For media coverage, here’s a link: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/axing-of-hastings-bus-link-will-leave-people-stranded-says-campaign-group-3899801
And the Press Release as sent to media:
EASTBOURNE/CONQUEST HOSPITAL HASTINGS – TRANSPORT GROUP
Quarterly meetings have taken place for over two decades to advance healthy transport focussed on the two major hospitals plus Bexhill Hospital and their catchment areas. Transport Futures East Sussex has attended throughout this time to support the hospitals’ efforts not just to to minimise transport impacts within catchments but to promote take-up of ‘healthy, sustainable transport’ modes by staff and the wider populations served by the organisations. The group has been an advocate of ‘active travel’ all along.
The hospitals have certainly been pro-active in encouraging staff to walk, cycle and to use public transport where possible by offering financial support and changing facilities to those who cycle and concessionary bus travel to current and prospective bus users. In addition, parking provision has been incrementally withdrawn for those staff who live within a certain radius of the hospital where they work. This frees up land for more productive purposes.
It helps that attendees include Stagecoach Buses, the transport authority (ESCC), the planning authority (Eastbourne, Lewe and Hastings Borough/District councils), Brighton University, Bespoke (Eastbourne Cycling Organisation), Hastings Sustainability Forum and ourselves, Transport Futures East Sussex. The latest (Nov) meeting was asked to consider the Eastbourne Town Centre plans featured in the consultation below and heard BSIP news from ESCC representative:
EASTBOURNE TOWN CENTRE – CONTINUING PLANS FOR CONSULTATION
We are submitting a response to the proposals which include a re-routeing of the existing ‘Ring Road’ (see map below – Upper Avenue Roundabout is at the top edge of the map)

EASTBOURNE TOWN CENTRE MOVEMENT AND ACCESS PACKAGE – PHASE 2b
Consultation response from ‘Transport Futures East Sussex’ – TFES
Our previous post (November 2021 – A Safer Route to School) highlighted the importance of low traffic levels in creating the conditions for children to safely make their ways to and from school/college, and for parents to feel confident for them to do so. The ‘Movement and Access Package’ includes Upper Avenue roundabout which is currently a significant deterrent to any such movement.
High entry/exit speeds can often be a characteristic of traffic here, and no formal crossing points exist. Parents of junior/infant children can be seen waiting for a gap in the traffic – or a sympathetic driver – to enable a ‘safer’ (not ‘safe’) traverse of the road. This operation is often carried out with accompanying pre-school infants and pushchairs. Dangerous roundabouts equals more school run traffic.
Without a significant redesign, this cannot exist as part of any scheme with ‘Access’ as a prime objective. Below is an example of a design to be more or less replicated in Hailsham and also partly replicated at the Memorial roundabout in Eastbourne. It is known as ‘Cyclops’ and enables safe pedestrian and cyclist circulation and featured in an earlier post. It is the required ‘civilised response’

Installation of ‘Cyclops’ design roundabouts will increase the attractiveness and safety of walking and cycling as a travel option for many, possibly as part of a longer journey by bus or train. At a larger scale, town wide ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhoods’ (LTNs) and 20mph default speed limits in residential areas again increase the take-up of walking and cycling. In support of LTNs, a recent study by Imperial College, London, found that LTNs reduce levels of traffic both in the centre and at the margins of neighbourhoods in which they are a part: …..’LTNs have the potential to reduce air pollution and traffic in target areas, without necessarily causing displacements in surrounding streets.’
We think this would also support adoption of 20mph speed limits in residential streets, a policy resisted so far by East Sussex County Council and of course (as pointed out in previous posts) LTNs, along with good quality cycle infrastructure, are a prerequisite of successful cargo bike delivery operations.
See link here: http://bit.ly/3AS9LIS
USEFUL ‘LTN’ INFO FROM ACROSS THE WATER – SOLENT, THAT IS…
Taken from ‘The Guardian’ this article on LTNs was picked up by Cyclewight officer, Tim Thorne:
Debunking False Claims About LTN’s
Published by Tim Thorne – 30/12/2022
Last word on the potential for LTNs to aid cargo bike delivery – our previous post carried the link below to parcels train operator ORION who use re-purposed former Thameslink trains to carry parcels across the UK to hubs from where ‘last mile’ delivery may take place.
We know that stations in the UK are relatively empty at night through the small hours, including at Brighton, Hastings, Eastbourne…..and that cargo bike company Zedify distribute parcels in some urban areas. The photos below illustrate the potential at Eastbourne station where expensively refurbished space exists – with platform access adjacent to an almost complete cycleway via which cargo bikes could deliver parcels town wide. Could Eastbourne be a candidate for an Orion/Zedify operation, replacing numbers of white vans? Why not?

Platform Access for Parcels

Space adjacent to platform for delivery/collection

Cycle route in/out for cargo bikes (partially complete)
Below: Link to rail parcels network information., Have a look!
https://orion.railopsgroup.co.uk
ESCC BSIP PROGRAMME and NEXT LOCAL TRANSPORT PLAN – LTP4
Additional ESCC BSIP plans as presented could make a big difference to the county’s bus network – 22 years after our first Local Transport Plan (LTP1 2000) which included bus priority measures described. We’ve been kept waiting for a long time – during which new housing developments have made major unwelcome contributions to traffic congestion and all its associated negative impacts on our lives, landscapes and biodiversity.
ESCC and BSIP – main points from ESCC presentation to Hospitals Transport Group:
Of the £41.1m from government, £20m will will fund bus priority measures in Peacehaven, Newhaven and Denton – and significant physical bus priority on Eastbourne’s Seaside Corridor and between Hailsham and Eastbourne. There will be ‘traffic light priority’ installed across the county.
£12m will supprt increased frequencies, expanded evening and weekend services.There will also be support for ‘demand responsive’ services to improve accress to public transport services.
£6m will fund reduced ticket prices.
£2m will be for other infrastructure such as Real Time Information displays, ‘mobility hubs’, key interchanges and bus stop improvements. There will be QR codes at nearly all stops for those with smart devices. Other funding will support promotion/marketing/publicity.
(We are pleased to note that ‘Real Time Information’ screens are now in place in the foyers of both Eastbourne DGH and Conquest Hospitals.)
Funding via BSIP must be used by April 2025!
Our take on the above:
‘Many good things here. Keys to success?’
Rapid implementation, collaboration between all tiers of local government, positive publicity and creative marketing, full integration with planning, health, environmental policies, parallel expansion of ‘Active Travel’ and rail infrastructure – and a brake on traffic generating major road schemes such as a new A27.
Acknowledgement of a continuing need to provide for printed timetable displays at bus stops and appreciation of the value and often unrealised full potential of scheduled bus services before substituting these with ‘demand responsive’ services.
Along with walking and cycling, recognition of the key role of ‘shared public transport’ at the core of spatial planning policy for a sustainable future.
We must reverse the slow degradation and disappearance of bus services seen over the last three decades and adopt traffic demand management measures, including Road User Charging, to help achieve this – so delivering healthier, more pleasant living spaces for all generations and more space for nature.
1954 – HAILSHAM TO EASTBOURNE IN 17 MINUTES. 2022: 40 MINUTES – OR MORE
Our politicians have to display a higher level of competence in delivery. Twenty years delay in implementing bus priority measures planned in LTP1 has damaged prospects of increasing bus usage and managing traffic demand from private cars – we’re still waiting. It has set us back years. Rail infrastructure development and expansion has happened: but not in East Sussex. Better leadership is required at the very top. Journey time in 1954 from Hailsham to Eastbourne was 17 minutes, by train.
NEW STATION AT GLYNE GAP – RAVENSIDE – TIME FOR A RE-THINK
It’s almost exactly 9 years since ESCC/ Rother District Councils scrapped long standing plans for a new station on the East Coastway line between Hastings and Bexhill on the basis that the infrastructure at that time could only accommodate one stopping train per hour – the signalling systems were claimed to be unable to permit any more. At precisely the time of the decision, new signalling was being installed that would have enabled two trains per hour to serve a new station. The decision made no sense then.
With traffic levels rising on Bexhill Road, Ravenside shopping centre and new housing nearby creating congestion, carbon reduction targets and air quality improvement requiring major mode shift away from private vehicles and towards sustainable modes, we think it’s time to re-appraise the case for the station.
LTP4
Consultation on the initial phase of plan development closed on the 9th Decenber. Development focussed on a number of key ‘themes’and comments were invited. The theme headings chosen were:
Accessiblity, equity and social inclusion; Safety, health and air quality; Community and sense of place; Climate change and impacts; Our local environment and biodiversity; Sustainable economic development; Innovation through technology. Here is the link to ESCC’s explanatory note and also to our response:
WE INVITED THE PUBLIC TO COMMENT!
Eastbourne Eco Action Network (EEAN) is an umbrella group working with Eastbourne Borough Council to achieve a ‘zero carbon’ Borough by 2030. The Beacon Centre in the town offered premises for a number of weeks pre-Christmas ’22 to exhibit and explain to the passing public what might be achieved, and how. As LTP4 should be playing its part in preparing the ground, we staged two pop-in seesions to collect ideas on how to organise our transport system to achieve our goals.
Here are some ideas from the 25 or so visitors who popped in:
1.Woman cyclist at location: ‘Tame that Upper Avenue roundabout!’. 2. School run traffic – it’s chaotic. Have a serious trial for a week with children using bikes. 3. Cycleway alongside the railway to Hampden Park. 4.A restored railway to Hailsham. 5. Car Clubs such as ‘Bla Bla Car’. 6. Circular tram route, cycling and walking along the seafront – comprehensive transport to meet needs of all residents. 7. Emphasise health benefits in publicity to amplify these and recognise the social benefits of walking and cycling. 8. Like Korea, have a covered cycleway down the centre of the road with solar panels on the roof. 9. Trams Hailsham – Polegate – Eastbourne. 10. School Streets – more of these. 11. Cheaper, cleaner and more regular buses. 12. Area tickets for bus and train in the Eastbourne and surrounding area. 13/14. More trains and cheaper for us (Two 16 yr olds). 15/16. More Stagecoach 99s please to Pevensey Bay – helps employment and better evening services – gets old people out for culture – healthy to socialise. Real Time info not always accurate and poor service on No 8 bus. 17. Railway line reopened to Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells please/safer cycling and sort out roundabouts. 18. A259 by ASDA is dangerous – like a race track! Bad driving on Old Marsh Road to Normans Bay – Bexhill would be a great asset for family cycling but dangerous with aggressive driving and LGVs rat running. Need to integrate bus and rail information. 19. Please speed up cycle network building. Look fwd to A27 route opening. Would support Uckfield railway reopening and why no Thameslink service from Eastbourne? 20/21. Why only 1 bus 99 an hour on Sunday? Why no late bus? The young and the evening economy need better services – good for tourism economy and keeps the elderly active. On the screens, if the bus is late it disappears which creates anxiety. Brighton and Hove marketing is better than Stagecoach. 22. Why no freight on rail? Parcel traffic clogs roads with vans! Get them on the railway! 23. I wouldn’t let my grandchild cycle to school but she’d love to. Please make roads safer! 24. Please can we tackle very noisy cars and motorbikes which scare people and put them off cycling? 25. 98 Stagecoach bus – can you please put more on eg evenings and Sundays and help to reduce my journey time from Herstmonceux? There have been too many delays and cancellations recently.
A plea from a 15 year old in Etchingham: “Why is there no bus at the weekends so I can meet friends in Burwash and Heathfield to catch the bus for a day’s shopping in Eastbourne? I don’t want to rely on lifts all the time!” The young (stranded) person has written to ESCC!
How many other young people are stranded?
Above comments received over two 120 minute sessions
SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK – £8m EXCEAT BRIDGE SCHEME APPROVED
The scheme, supported by ESCC – was approved by the Planning Board of the South Downs National Park. We objected. Here’s why:
Transport Futures East Sussex, 9 Mayfield Place, Eastbourne, East Sussex.BN22 8XJ
5th December 2022
Dear SDNP Planning Committee members, Exceat Bridge Planning Application – SDNP/21/02342/FUL
I am writing on behalf of our organisation Transport Futures East Sussex asking the Planning Committee not to grant the application referred to above. This is for the following reasons:
· The installed traffic signals appear to have very significantly reduced congestion at the bridge and consequent problems. The need for the bridge should be questioned.
· We found that on 12 bus journeys across the causeway, 4 in the a.m. peak, the bus was over the bridge in well under one minute with the fastest traverse in 2 seconds. The slowest traverse took 52 seconds. Journeys were undertaken between mid September – early December
· All 12 bus drivers spoke positively in terms of the lights making the traverse easier; 2 were very enthusiastic – with one predicting crashes if they were removed and two way traffic permitted.
· Higher speeds across the causeway would be a consequence of the extra bridge capacity even with a limit, and noise levels would increase in this tranquil location and outstanding landscape of the SDNP.
· Unimpeded eastbound traffic would create a hazard for pedestrians and cyclists at the visitor centre crossing point (currently desire line) where a formal crossing is now needed.
· There is a need for a high quality path over the causeway for pedestrians and cyclists with arrangements for pedestrian/cycle access to the Cuckmere Inn and footpath south, and Litlington Lane.
· The above would fit with policies to expand ‘tourism without traffic’ – a long accepted but not often enough stated principle – with simultaneously consequent health, environmental, economic and social equity objectives: the proposed bridge expansion would confound these and deliver more traffic, degrading the valley.
· An unintended (but inevitable) consequence of more traffic – attracted by the knowingly false premise of ‘easier journeys by car due to extra capacity’ – could be to congest the lane to/from Litlington/Alfriston/A27 and make the junction on the east side of the causeway fraught with danger through frustration to access/egress, and likely impulsive driver behavour.
An opportunity/cost exercise on the benefits of the proposed investment vs other higher value for money measures would almost certainly fit with any objectives of COP1 – COP 27.
The 2000 ‘Tourism Without Traffic’ study conducted for and by East Sussex County Council ground to a halt without all recommended measures being implemented. (e.g. Berwick Station – Drusillas cycle/footpath, recently completed). Its objectives are still relevant today – or even moreso. The expanded bridge capacity would deliver ‘Tourism With Traffic’.
Please do not approve the application.
Sincerely, Derrick Coffee, County Officer, Transport Futures East Sussex.
Extra road capacity across the causeway will degrade this National Park location below.

INTERNATIONAL SECTION –
LONDON – BERLIN SLEEPER TRAIN CONNECTION:
A useful option for a growing number of those wanting to enrich a travel experience at reduced cost to the planet (Guardian, 29/12/22). But sadly not from Ashford ‘International’ station, now a dormant and potentially very useful resource.

BETTER DEAL FOR RAIL PASSENGERS IN SCOTLAND – LET’S HAVE SOME OF THAT IN ENGLAND AND WALES .
Railfares in England are due to rise by 5.9% from March!
GATWICK AIRPORT – SECOND RUNWAY
We are opposed to airport expansion and support the campaign run by CAGNE: Stop Gatwick Expansion
We have supported Eastbourne Eco Action Network EEAN – Eastbourne ECO Action Network: Our Blog .The EEAN Transport Group will be represented at the Eastbourne Borough Council ‘Scrutiny Committee’ on January 9th where it will consider support for the expamnsion of Gatwick Airport.
THANKYOU FOR TAKING TIME TO HAVE A LOOK AT THIS WEBSITE.
HAPPY NEW YEAR