LBSCR Hastings routing

[Sad Sprinter]

Did the LBSCR ever run Victoria to Hastings/Bexhill trains via the Uckfield and Cuckoo Lines to compete with the SECR route through Tonbridge? Might have given those lines a bit more of 'main-line' feel if they did.

 

[steamybrian]

Do consider that the direct line between Ashurst Junction and Birchden Junction was not opened for passenger traffic until 1914. Prior to that trains would had to reverse at Groombridge or Tunbridge Wells West. In answer to your question -it is doubtful.
Also consider that even after 1914 trains via Uckfield would have to reverse at Lewes to go to Bexhill/Hastings.

 

[30907]

Looking at the 1920 Bradshaw online, trains to Polegate via Heathfield took a good half-hour longer than via Plumpton and called at all stations below Eridge. I'm not sure that even non-stop the route would have been able to match the main line let alone the SECR route.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Interesting, thanks both. Seems sometimes that the LBSCR missed out of building-up their Portsmouth/East Sussex corridors to cut off some of the corners from the main trunk to Brighton.

 

[etr221]

In 1848 the LBSCR and the SER made an agreement over their territories, which was roughly along the Tonbridge-Hastings line, and when this was built there was (I think) a revenue sharing agreement between them over the London-Hastings traffic. And although there were proposals, without an obvious easy alternative route towards Hastings, both companies were I think fairly content to let it more or less stand.

 

[Gloster]

The LB&SCR got an act passed in 1864 for the Ouse Valley Railway which would leave the Brighton Main Line just south of Balcombe Viaduct and cut across to Uckfield and then on to Hailsham, already on a branch from Polegate. In 1865 an act was passed for the St Leonards Railway to run from a few miles north of Hailsham to what became St Leonards West Marina. Some work was done, but the crisis following the collapse of Overend, Gurney & Co. in May 1866, probably combined with the realisation that the line would probably never be truly competitive with the 10 mile shorter SER route, led to the whole project being abandoned.