Lewes platform alterations between P4 and P5 that frequently occur.

[stadler]

Why do these last minute platform alterations between P4 and P5 at Lewes happen so often?

This one really baffles me. Both platforms are on the same line and part of the same island. It makes no difference which platform the train uses. The same track splits in to two lines for two platforms and then joins together again. So it is not like it helps prevent conflicting moves or anything like that. Trains never overtake here either.

I have lost count of how many times i have seen this happen over the years. At least once every couple months i see it happen. I know other people who use Lewes a lot who always notice this too. It is just such a strange place for platform alterations.

The most recent time was just last Saturday evening just over a week ago. The previous train was over ten minutes before. The next train was over ten minutes later. So there was no other nearby trains that they were trying to catch up and overtake. But just one or two minutes before arrival there is an automated announcement about the platform alteration and it suddenly switches platforms.

Does anyone know what the logic is in these random P4 and P5 platform alterations at Lewes that keep happening?

 

[NSE]

I haven’t seen it happen for ages. I travel through there on an almost daily basis. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, clearly your anecdotal evidence suggests it does, but I’m fairly confident it doesn’t happen that much. As for why, there’ll be a reason, even if it doesn’t show as obvious.

 

[Surreytraveller]

There's tight overlaps at Lewes, and trains of certain lengths can sit on track circuits which then prevent the points being swung at the junction or the signals being cleared. Don't know the ins and outs, but that could be part of the reason

 

[Bishopstone]

The Brighton-Lewes shuttles, which used p.5, were a casualty of Covid which haven’t returned, outside of football extra workings.

I wonder whether some trains are routed through p.5 to retain driver experience of the signalling arrangements to/from this platform, and also to keep the points moving occasionally, so failures aren’t discovered at 13:00 on a football Saturday.

 

[RailWonderer]

It caught me out once in May when there were trains on both P4 and P5, one to Seaford the other to Brighton and me and a family hopped on the Seaford one thinking it was for Brighton because the app said so then we checked the board and it was the opposite platform and I told a family the wrong thing and felt stupid when the guard hopped on to tell us to take the train on the opposite platform.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

So don’t trust Apps…

 

[izvor]

There's another minor quirk at Lewes where trains from P2 (towards London) are shown "on time", then a few minutes before arrival drop to "delay 3 mins" - and the train rolls in on time. Probably unrelated to above, and I rarely use P4/5 anyway but I think it has happened to me there too.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

That’s a fun thing at Sanderstead too. Off topic so no more to be mentioned here.

 

[Bishopstone]

There's another minor quirk at Lewes where trains from P2 (towards London) are shown "on time", then a few minutes before arrival drop to "delay 3 mins" - and the train rolls in on time. Probably unrelated to above, and I rarely use P4/5 anyway but I think it has happened to me there too.

I’ve seen this catch-out unfamiliar travellers who decide they have enough time to grab a coffee from The Runaway ‘because the train’s late’.

 

[stadler]

I was in Lewes again yesterday evening and the same thing happened. A last minute P4 to P5 platform alteration about a minute before the train arrived. It is so strange. That is the fourth time in eight weeks that i have had a last minute P4 to P5 platform alteration here.