West Sussex railway changes: Thameslink will no longer serve Littlehampton as councillors criticise 'incredibly short-sighted' plans

It comes after the Arun town’s newly elected group of Labour councillors raised concerns that Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Thameslink and Southern services, planned to axe the ‘only direct Brighton-to-Littlehampton train in the evening peak’. They said trains would terminate at Worthing – ‘cutting off a vital service for commuters and local college students traveling west’ of the town.

They said the train company also planned to axe the ‘vital and long-standing’ Brighton to Hove shuttle – which ‘provided an easy connection’ with the Victoria to Littlehampton services at Hove, ‘enabling easy travel between Brighton and Littlehampton’.

Jenny Saunders, GTR’s customer services director, said: “I can assure Littlehampton passengers that the London Bridge and Brighton-Hove shuttle services are not being reduced.

“The Thameslink service to London Bridge is being replaced by a new Southern service.

“We’re doubling peak-time frequency between West Worthing and Brighton from two to four trains per hour, because passenger demand along the West Sussex coast is concentrated on that section. The two additional trains will replace the Hove to Brighton shuttles.

“To fit in those extra trains, we’ve had to remove the one direct evening peak service each way between Littlehampton and Brighton. There is a good connection to the Littlehampton-London Victoria services to complete a Brighton to Littlehampton journey.

“In the longer term, we’ll continue the redesign of West Coastway services, in consultation with local people, to add additional capacity and a direct Brighton to Littlehampton service.”

The new timetables will be introduced on Sunday, so changes to peak-time services ‘will come into effect from Monday, May 22’.

The Labour group said the changes mean anybody wanting to travel from Brighton to stations west of Worthing ‘will now face at least a 20-minute stop-over’ at an intermediate station – and that all those passengers will be ‘forced to cram into existing service’ that is ‘already at full capacity’.

Arun district and Littlehampton town councillor Freddie Tandy said: “At a time when councils across the country have declared a climate emergency, and when people are being encouraged to choose greener and more sustainable forms of transport, to make it harder for people to get train will only drive people back into their cars, and back onto the already heavily congested A27 and A259. It’s a lose-lose situation for everyone.”

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