On January 17th the heavy rain that has caused chaos across the country added to the misery of people travelling by train to and from Brighton.  Flooding at Balcombe meant severe delays and cancellations to train journeys, while  travel by road was also seriously disrupted, so plans for replacement buses were scuppered.

 

Of course, those who run our railways can’t be held responsible for severe weather events, but they should be accountable to passengers about their response, and many of my constituents felt that information hadn’t been forthcoming.

 

That day, I contacted Network Rail to request that they talk to me about their response to the flooding, ways future disruption can be minimised, and broader issues about capacity on the Brighton mainline in future.   A meeting with them took place yesterday.

 

It was useful meeting, key points from which were:

 

·      In terms of the vulnerability of the Balcombe tunnel to flooding, essentially they said they had installed new pumps last year which had mostly held up well.  However, that day the rain was so intense and ground so saturated, that the culverts became temporarily blocked.

 

·      They are looking into ways of improving information-sharing with the Highways Agency and the Environment Agency, so they can co-ordinate more effectively

 

·      They have begun discussions with the private owner of the Balcombe estate about  measures to reduce drainage onto the tracks

 

·      By the end of the year, they will have taken measures to make the track in the Balcombe area more resilient, so it’s less vulnerable to circuit failure

 

·      They’re changing their signalling systems so more trains can pass through the tunnel

 

It was useful to hear directly from them - time will tell whether such measures are enough.  But I also let them know that this is part of a bigger picture – passengers on the mainline are having a constantly miserable time for a range of reasons, and we need to see long-term improvements to capacity on the line.  Passengers have a right to know, and I’ll keep asking questions.