A redesigned timetable will be introduced by Southern this June following customer feedback.
Improvements are coming to Hampshire and West Sussex, including new services, expanded capacity and less waiting times.
Southern says it hopes the changes will help people onto the trains and off the congested roads such as the A27 and M27.
There are lots of changes, which are available to view on the Southern website, but in short:
- Monday to Saturday trains will double from 2 to 4 trains per hour between Brighton, Worthing and Chichester, creating more than 5,000 extra seats every day.
- Brighton to Southampton trains will double from 1 to 2 trains per hour with an extra stop at Woolston
- A new hourly all-stations stopper service will run between Brighton and Littlehampton / Chichester, linking Brighton and Littlehampton with an all day service for the first time since 2007.
- London to Portsmouth services via Gatwick Airport will be half-hourly from June and will be extended to Portsmouth Harbour for better connections with ferry services.
To allow for these changes, the following services will be withdrawn
- Hourly Southampton – London Victoria via Horsham and Gatwick Airport
- Hourly Littlehampton – Bognor Regis
- Littlehampton – Portsmouth & Southsea
- Brighton to Hove shuttle, this will be replaced by a new Brighton to Southampton service and a new Brighton to Chichester / Portsmouth & Southsea services
Jenny Saunders, Southern's Customer Services Director, said: “We are making these changes to give passengers more trains and many more seats on our more popular routes. Services will be much more frequent, more punctual, faster in some cases, and more reliable right across the network. There will be less waiting for trains as well because we'll space out the services more evenly.
“These improvements for the vast majority of our customers along the coastal route will encourage greener travel[MW1] on our electric trains, tourism and employment, boosting local communities and economies from Southampton to Brighton.”
Jenny Saunders added: “We considered every response carefully and, to better serve our customers' needs, we've made eight main amendments to our original proposals, and incorporated hundreds of smaller changes to the times of individual trains.”
Rail Minister Huw Merriman said: “It's vital that our railways stay up-to-date and reflect what passengers want. These changes, which come following feedback from local communities, will deliver better services for more people across the South.”
No improvement then to the service between Ashford to Hastings ….despite it being only an hourly service and always short formed trains. The problem seems to be that this is a service that Southern don’t actually want ….