Category Archives: Transport

Buses, availability of local access roads and main roads used by local residents: A23, A27, A281, A283, A287, A2037, etc.
Not to be conflated with ‘Highways’ which deals with the condition of the local access roads and is a constant topic of the Parish Council.

Ham Fields Forever

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Ham Fields
The Mid Sussex Times reports:

Opposition is growing to controversial plans for 97 homes on greenfield land near one of the most polluted crossroads in Mid Sussex. .. The South Downs National Park Authority says the scheme would be seen from Wolstonbury Hill and “have the potential for significant adverse impact on the national park”.
..
Access to the site would be off London Road, which has an average daily weekday traffic flow of 14,000 vehicles. West Sussex Highways officers have expressed concern about road safety and the impact on Stonepound Crossroads, which, in their words is “subject to severe congestion”.

The wrong kind of snow

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A27 flooded in 2012
The Worthing Herald reports:

Despite £800,000 being spent fixing the drainage on the A27, the busy trunk-road is still vulnerable to flooding with fed-up motorists facing yet more delays last week.

After months of disruption and lane closures in 2012, the dual carriageway still could not cope with the volume of water coming off the South Downs this winter.

But the Highways Agency denies that its drainage work has failed, arguing that it was never meant to deal with this kind of flooding.

Bramber unbumped

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St Mary's House, Bramber
The West Sussex County Times (print edition, February 13th) is reporting that West Sussex County Council has finally agreed to remove all of the speed bumps that have been causing damage to three of Bramber’s oldest houses: Yew Tree Cottage, The Gables and St. Mary’s House (shown above). The campaign by residents against the bumps has lasted for over twenty years.

A283 diversion

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A283 diversion in February
The A283 between the A24 and Storrington will be shut between from 6:00am on Saturday 15th February to 5:00am on Monday 17th February, and from 6:00am on Saturday 22nd February to 5:00am on Monday 24th February. The diversion will be routed via the B2139 Thakeham Road, Rock Road and the A24.

A23 Handcross–Pease Pottage closures

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Handcross to Pease Pottage

Date Duration Details Allow an Extra
Monday 10 February to Tuesday 11 February 2014 Overnight Works 20:00 – 06:00 Southbound carriageway closed 20 Minutes
Wednesday 12 February to Thursday 13 February 2014 Overnight Works 20:00 – 06:00 Northbound carriageway closed 20 Minutes
Thursday 13 February to Friday 14 February 2014 Overnight Works 20:00 – 06:00 Northbound carriageway closed 20 Minutes
Saturday 15 February to Sunday 16 February 2014 Overnight Works 20:00 – 06:00 Southbound carriageway closed 20 Minutes

£2 towards cycle path

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Henfield Business Park

Henfield Business Park

The West Sussex County Times reports:

Councillors have granted a business developer approval to reduce its transport contributions from thousands of pounds to just £2. .. Brian O’Connell (Con: Henfield) said the county council’s transport contribution demand was ‘ridiculous’. .. One of the county council’s requests was to create a cycle path from Woodmancote to Henfield, which Mr O’Connell laughed at the prospect of. .. Brian Donnelly (Con Pulborough and Coldwaltham) said: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, we could get it wrong. Cycle paths are a total waste of money, but this site will be adding to cars on the road, so there should be a transport charge. I don’t understand why the mechanics went so wrong.”

No spare rail capacity

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Balcombe Viaduct in a 1954 photograph
The LAMBS website has a very interesting post on the (im)possibility of carrying more passengers on the London–Brighton line:

[Mayfield is] a completely unsustainable development from the transport perspective .. You have to remember that the Brighton mainline has only got four lines from London as far as Balcombe Tunnel, which is just South of Crawley. Beyond that it’s a two track railway going down to Brighton and I can see no way of actually widening that section of line. You’ve got a number of obstacles in your way which would have to be addressed because of the undulating way of the countryside.

Much more here.
Update 25th January: Lee Newlyn responds.

Road & rail flooded

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Road closed
As of 5:16am, the Highways Agency is reporting that the A23 is closed in both directions between the M23 (Pease Pottage) and the A272 (Bolney) due to flooding. Diversions are posted. The Argus is reporting (7:42am) that tailbacks coming out of Brighton are stretching back about five miles with delays of at least an hour and a half. In addition, ” rail services between Haywards Heath and Three Bridges are cancelled in both directions due to flooding in the Balcombe tunnel” and “replacement buses are being affected by flooding on local roads”. More here.

Also the West Sussex County Times is reporting that “the A281 Crouch Hill in Henfield is closed between the B2116 Albourne Road junction and the Deer Park junction”.

Update 11:50am: the A23 has reopened (WSCT). More road news here.