Disruption through Lewes expected until 09:30 

Route(s) affected

Between London Victoria / Haywards Heath / Ore / Eastbourne / Seaford and Brighton

Description

A fault with the signalling system at Lewes means some lines are blocked. As a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.

This is expected until 09:30.

Customer advice:

You may need to use an alternative route to travel and allow extra time to complete your journey.

Trains between Haywards Heath, Lewes and Eastbourne will be delayed.

Services are currently unable to run between Lewes and Seaford, meaning you'll need to use an alternative route to travel. We recommend leaving at least 30 minutes more time to complete your journey.

Your ticket will be accepted at no extra cost on alternative Southern services between Haywards Heath, Brighton and Ore, as well as the following bus route:

• Brighton & Hove Buses route 12 for Brighton, Newhaven Town, Bishopstone (Hill Rise), Seaford, and Eastbourne

If you are travelling from / to a station between Lewes and Seaford, please use Brighton & Hove buses to connect with train services either at Brighton or Eastbourne.

Planning your journey:

You can use live departure boards, and a live map of the network.

You can see an alternative route guide.

You can also use Southern's app to find up-to-date information.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

This part of the network uses track circuits to detect the position of trains. These are electrical systems which monitor whether a train is on a section of track. They operate as part of the signalling system, which is designed to be "fail safe".

When a track circuit fails, the signalling system will interpret this as a train remaining in place, even though there may not be a train present at all, or the previous service may have long since left the area.

As a result, further trains cannot be automatically allowed onto the relevant section of track. Train drivers will be stopped by red signals on approach. They will then get verbal permission from the signaller so that they can proceed, and will run at a heavily-reduced speed as far as the next signal. This is so that the drivers will stop safely if they see anything ahead of them.

In some areas, the sections between signals can be several miles long, so this can result in delays building up. Even with shorter sections of track affected, there would still be a delay of at least a few minutes to each journey.

Track circuit faults can be caused by a number of different issues, including electronic faults or obstructions on the track. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including track circuits, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.