A RETIRED mathematician has devised an “affordable and imaginative” plan to re-establish a railway route.

Tony Briginshaw, from Hove, has put forward proposals to introduce a passenger train to re-establish the Shoreham to Henfield rail link, including the creation of a new terminal at Shoreham Airport.

Mr Briginshaw has produced a leaflet calling for a train comprising of one, two, three or four battery powered passenger units to operate on the route.

He said: “The natural northern limit of the facility seems to be Henfield, and to the south, Shoreham, not Shoreham Town, but Shoreham Airport.

“The reason for the Shoreham Airport route is simple. Any other possible route presents serious engineering and cost problems.

“We are talking about a light railway link and there is no way that it could be taken over, or under, the A27 viaduct interchange.”

The new route would serve Shoreham, Steyning, Bramber and Henfield.

His proposal states that the route would run from a new Shoreham Airport terminal, crossing over the A27 by the bridge west of the flyover, before proceeding along the Adur valley.

It would then cross the road system by a level crossing near to Bramber and Steyning, heading to a northern terminal on the western side of Henfield.

Mr Briginshaw, who describes himself as a “civil engineer manqué”, added: “Trains would terminate at Shoreham Airport and there would be a new Network Rail facility on the Shoreham to Worthing line as an additional stop, serving Shoreham Airport, but also allowing easy interchange from the Shoreham to Henfield line to the Shoreham to Worthing line.”

The proposed units are modelled on a metro system similar to the Docklands Light Railway in East London, with no third power rail or overhead electricity transmission needed.

Mr Briginshaw said the route is ideally suited to equipping passenger units with roof-top solar panels to charge the train’s batteries and keep the interiors warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The design would depend on which new techniques and materials are decided to be the most safe and efficient to use.