TRAINS were delayed and cancelled on a railway line despite recent work to make it more “reliable”.

This is the second time trains services have been disrupted between Seaford and Lewes since a “major upgrade” on the line earlier this month.

A Southern Rail spokesman said the delays were due to “a fault with the signalling system”.

This follows an issue on December 2, the day after four days of work had been completed on the line, which meant that no trains could run on the line for several hours.

The work was the final phase of work on a £25m project to upgrade the old signalling system on the line with modern, more reliable technology.

Dan Athol, programme director for Network Rail, said: “This is a much-needed upgrade to some of the oldest signalling in the country, with new state-of-the-art equipment providing passengers with more reliable journeys for many years to come.”