Head of tourism for Brighton And Hove City Council mentioned the city is competing with Manchester, Birmingham, Paris, Copenhagen, and so on (The Argus, June 21).
Where do most travellers and tourists go from Southampton, Portsmouth, the Channel Tunnel, Gatwick, Heathrow? To Brighton, or London, and the North?
If a business representative, or tourist from the Continent disembarked from a Eurostar train at Ashford International, they would have a quaint, often beautiful, coastway rail journey to Brighton and Hove on an hourly two-carriage diesel locomotive, often with standing room only, starting off on a single unelectrified track to Ore station.
Passing speed restrictions near Lewes, they would disembark at Brighton Station after a two-hour journey. Next they would have to cross eight platforms, possibly wait 20 minutes for a specific coastway train to Hove, Portsmouth, Southampton or Bournemouth.
Direct cross-country trains from Manchester and Birmingham, avoiding London, and traditional direct Southern trains via Watford Junction to the Midlands avoiding London no longer exist, also South-West trains to Reading no longer run.
Soon there will be only the Brighton line using Brighton Station, leaving business reps and tourists the coach or car to visit the city. The former Southern Railway used to promote the South Coast.
John Stanaway
Lorna Road, Hove
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