Brighton rail musings

[mr_jrt]

Was looking around at my local area and a couple of thoughts occurred to me that I figured I'd get some other opinions on.

First up: I noticed a bit of an anomaly in the gap between Hove and Brighton stations, given the population density. Digging a little deeper I found there was originally a station here, and I think it would be beneficial to have one here again with an entrance on Montefiore Road (and perhaps a secondary entrance onto Holland Road).

A cheap and cheerful modern station wouldn't cost too much I'd have thought, and it'd have a great catchment area. Might also add a bit more utility to the Brighton-Hove shuttles.

Next up, how about a change to London Road station by renaming to, and a new entrance on, Ditchling Road. It seems quite bizarre to have the station and road access on such a tiny backwater road with no buses running past it, so an entrance on Ditchling Road would ease the interchange.

Thoughts?

 

[EM2]

What's wrong with using the no. 7 bus between Brighton and Hove?
I used to live in Peacehaven, and work round the back of the Goldstone, and a combination of the 14a & 7 worked perfectly.

 

[ushawk]

Categorically no chance of it happening now - the Number 7 bus would take about 5 minutes from Brighton station and runs every 7 minutes.

London Road (Brighton) serves the London Road area, although of course its a fair walk away. If you are to rename it, then id say that "Hollingdean" would be appropriate, since thats the name of the area near the station. Preston Park would be an option, if it wasnt for 1 tiny problem !!

 

[mr_jrt]

What's wrong with using the no. 7 bus between Brighton and Hove?
I used to live in Peacehaven, and work round the back of the Goldstone, and a combination of the 14a & 7 worked perfectly.

Basically - I started by wondering why London Road is still open given the proximity to Brighton station , and figured if it was justified then an equivalent on the west coastway route probably should be too. Brighton has a very congested set of roads, one argument I read against the planned Bus rapid transit system was that Brighton is one of those few places like Oxford Street in London where you can get a traffic jam consisting solely of buses!

...so I figured that if you could serve the residential area around the proposed station directly by rail you'd relieve the buses heading to Hove and Brighton, not to mention reducing the numbers interchanging at the bus station.