No trains Crowborough - Uckfield until Tuesday 12th August

[williamn]

Line is closed until Tuesday apparently. Local TV news suggested it’s a signalling issue. Not sure when the issue started but seems like a usually long closure.

“No trains can run between Crowborough and Uckfield until Tuesday 12 August. You will need to use alternative routes to reach your destination, which will increase your journey time by at least 30 minutes.”

https://www.southernrailway.com/service-updates/service-updates?uq=638904598648350000#INC48E5C240EC0B4C3F85E3ADC462C7A908

 

[Chrisgr31]

There has been an intermittent issue with the signals between Crowborough and Uckfield for some time. The latest issues occurred on Thursday around lunchtime and there was no service south of Crowborough for the rest of the day. On Friday the day started with a full service however again around lunchtime the issues between Crowborough and Uckfield led to a line closure and the decision to close until Tuesday.

Publicly Network Rail are saying the cable is 19 miles lone and there is a fault somewhere and they need specialist diagnostic kit.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Aug 2025 ==

Having shut at Friday lunchtime the line between Crowborough and Uckfield remains shut

“The signal fault between Crowborough and Uckfield persists after overnight works could not fix the fault.”

is what Southern say on X. Failing to mention the line closed on Friday and it’s now Tuesday.

 

[williamn]

Looks like the line continues to be closed today.

 

[4COR]

Is it not possible to implement One Train Working on the section between Greenhurst Jnc (or indeed between Crowborough) and Uckfield, as it's single line, or does the fault/location preclude that?

 

[zwk500]

Is it not possible to implement One Train Working on the section between Greenhurst Jnc (or indeed between Crowborough) and Uckfield, as it's single line, or does the fault/location preclude that?

It looks from OpenTrainTimes that they're working London Bridge-Crowborough using the down platform at Crowborough (which has a wrong-direction departure signal).

 

[Chrisgr31]

It looks from OpenTrainTimes that they're working London Bridge-Crowborough using the down platform at Crowborough (which has a wrong-direction departure signal).

i haven’t been on the train this week but Thursday and Friday the train I was on that was terminating at Crowborough came in to the up platform.

A train has been spotted at Uckfield this afternoon so maybe they are testing something. The timetable still says they are all cancelled

 

[Falcon1200]

Is it not possible to implement One Train Working on the section between Greenhurst Jnc (or indeed between Crowborough) and Uckfield, as it's single line, or does the fault/location preclude that?

It might be possible, (with Pilotman Working?) but the delays liable to be incurred would cause havoc, especially when Up trains join the Brighton Main Line!

 

[muz379]

It might be possible, (with Pilotman Working?) but the delays liable to be incurred would cause havoc, especially when Up trains join the Brighton Main Line!

That assumed a spare person to be able to act as pilot .

And of course also causes issues with siganller workload and possibly hinders any fault finding if staff doing that require line blocks to carry out that work .

 

[Falcon1200]

Yes, those are certainly factors as well.

 

[duffield]

Looks like it's all running normally again today.