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Reduced Arun Valley Service from 1st to 15th September

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Nicholas Lewis

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Southern have announced a reduced Arun Valley service due to having to impose a speed restriction between Horsham and Arundel due to track issues.

The fast portion Horsham to Porstmouth Harbour is withdrawn with the train running as the stopping service only to Bognor. They will also run the Barnham to Portsmouth Harbour service and have withdrawn the Bognor to Barnham shuttles and peak hour extras. So not a bad compromise and they should be able to maintain formations from London Victoria.

https://www.southernrailway.com/service-updates/service-updates

A speed restriction between Horsham and Barnham means fewer trains are able to run on all lines towards Barnham / Bognor Regis / Portsmouth Harbour. Trains running between these stations will be revised.

We expect this to continue until at least Tuesday 15 September.

Southern are sorry that some customers travelling on the Arun Valley route will continue to experience disruption.

The recent record-breaking hot weather and sustained low rainfall has affected track conditions in some areas, meaning temporary speed restrictions need to remain in place. Safety is and will always remain our highest priority.

Because trains need longer to complete their journeys, running the normal timetable could lead to delays building up throughout the day and increase the risk of short-notice cancellations. To provide customers with greater certainty and help keep services running as reliably as possible, Southern have temporarily revised the timetable.

Southern know many customers rely on their services every day for work, school, appointments and important time with family and friends, and they are sorry for the disruption these changes may cause. The revised timetable has also been designed to minimise the impact on customers wherever possible, including protecting key services used by schoolchildren travelling to and from school.
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RailUK Forums

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moley

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12 Jun 2011
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409
I understand that the change is necessary due to ground conditions, but it leads to a number of frustrations as someone uses the service from Portsmouth to East Croydon :

1. The existing service from Portsmouth through to Horsham is half hourly, and the replacement Barnham to Portsmouth service is hourly.
2. Why not detach/attach at Barnham as happens on a Sunday?
3. Why not run one of the two services fast through to Portsmouth and the other stopping through to Bognor, with the usual supplemental Barnham to Bognor services.

and finally,

Having announced this, why are the journey planners not updated? Its a bank holiday weekend, it was announced at 4pm on a Friday, and the first thing that most will find out about this is when they turn up on Tuesday morning to find a different train service to usual.
 
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Bikeman78

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26 Apr 2018
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6,172
Nicholas Lewis said:
Southern have announced a reduced Arun Valley service due to having to impose a speed restriction between Horsham and Arundel due to track issues.

The fast portion Horsham to Porstmouth Harbour is withdrawn with the train running as the stopping service only to Bognor. They will also run the Barnham to Portsmouth Harbour service and have withdrawn the Bognor to Barnham shuttles and peak hour extras. So not a bad compromise and they should be able to maintain formations from London Victoria.

https://www.southernrailway.com/service-updates/service-updates
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Cancelling the London Bridge train for another two weeks is a curious one. I'm starting to wonder if it's worth running at all. It gets cancelled so often that hardly anyone counts on it. On the occasions I have used it, it's been lightly loaded. I can often get a table of four to myself.
 
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Nicholas Lewis

Established Member
Joined
9 Aug 2019
Messages
7,995
Location
Surrey
Bikeman78 said:
Cancelling the London Bridge train for another two weeks is a curious one. I'm starting to wonder if it's worth running at all. It gets cancelled so often that hardly anyone counts on it. On the occasions I have used it, it's been lightly loaded. I can often get a table of four to myself.
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Yesterday they implemented a variation of the planned reductions next week but today they are running the normal service with the fast/slow splits at Horsham.

Most time loss appears to be Arundel-Amberley section as the trains are losing 4-5m in the Up direction only. This then means they then get compromised at Gatwick as they cross Slow to Fast out of Gatwick although some signallers are more creative and use Earlswood Sth Jcn.
 
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devon_belle

devon_belle

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21 Jul 2022
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648
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Surrey
Little late to this, but I I used the line on Thursday and noticed a long, very slow TSR north of Arundel. There was also a big lurch which jolted us around even at 15-ish mph. Have there been more restrictions imposed since then, or has it been realised/decided that the service performance is not acceptable as is?

When I finish building my time machine I will go back and encourage the LBSCR to build their embankments a bit less cheaply!
 
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Expression357

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16 Jul 2009
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Essex
There's a mile or so long 20mph speed about a mile up the road from Arundel on the Up Arun Valley which isn't helping, as well as a number of other shorter speeds of 20 and 50mph to contend with between Arundel Junction and Horsham (both ways) - the Up loss is largely being absorbed into the (for now) redundant attachment time at Horsham which more or less gets you an on-time departure towards Gatwick - which stops the rest of the TL service being bashed into and all the consequences north thereafter. The Down loss is being absorbed in turnaround time at Bognor without sending late running crashing into Wessex.

It would have been easy enough to not provide a Barnham - Portsmouth 1Z shuttle, and just rely on the West Coastway service - putting on the shuttle at 1tph serves the likes of Fishbourne and Nutbourne, who normally get 1tph on the 1C anyway - without having to add disruptive stops to other West Coastway services which would lead to delay more widely between Brighton and Wessex. The path being taken on that 1Z is the 1C's natural path.

As for Journey Planners, this is having to be done day-by-day by the GTR and Network Rail Sussex Control Room at Three Bridges (notice the VSTP on RTT) presumedly until the respective train planning teams can take over...
 
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