Arun Valley Line - My December Sussex local article

Southwest Trains go as far as Horsham

I attended  the Arun Valley Stakeholder meeting at Christ's Hospital last Thursday, the reason is that I am passionately  believe that we should develop the line with important infrastructure,

After the meeting I now understand why the Arundel Chord is taking so long as a project, the current line is not up to sratch on an engineering level and work has to be done before other improvements can come about.

My four rail liked priorities for the residents of Arundel and the surrounding villages are as follows,

1)    Arundel Chord
2)    A New Free Car Park at Ford
3)    Competing franchise to use the Arun Vally Line via Horsham & Dorking to London
4)   Cycleway linking Ford Station with Arundel and the coast cycleway

The Arundel Chord would allow trains to travel from the east and go north up the arun line and also trains to travel south and go east, this would build resiliance and lower our dependency on the Brighton to Victoria line.

A new free car park at Ford Station would take cars off the roads and encourage drivers to take the train to the Gatwick Diamond and beyond.

South West trains currently have the franchise to go from Horsham to London via Dorking, if they extended their trains south to Littlehampton & Bognor they would increase capacity and resiliance to London

Cycleway from Ford Station to Arundel would allow for school children and communiters to safly walk or cycle to and from the station as well as encourgae green tourism..  Many school children walk between Arundel and Ford along a road where drivers are travelling at up to 70mph, the speed limit is 60mph.