Rebuilding a disused railway holds the key to helping Brighton and Hove's long-suffering commuters, councillors have claimed.

In a week when momentum has gathered behind The Argus's Save Our Service campaign to force Southern Railway to improve conditions, calls were made to reinstate the rail link between Uckfield and Lewes.

Green party members of Brighton and Hove City Council said the line would be a crucial way to relieve overcrowding on the London to Brighton mainline.

Councillor Ian Davey said: "Reopening this rail link will relieve pressure on the London to Brighton bottleneck and provide an invaluable alternative route into the city when engineering works are being carried out on the mainline."

He presented a notice of motion at a full council meeting last night calling for it to start lobbying Transport Minister Andrew Adonis to make the scheme a priority.

However the plan was voted down by the Conservative members of the council, who took exception to a clause in it calling for rail projects to have priority over road-building.

Conservative councillor Geoffrey Theobald said such a move could harm much-needed work on the A23 at Handcross Hill, near Horsham.

Last year a major study into the Uckfield to Lewes line carried out by Network Rail concluded the economic case for a reopening was not strong enough for it to sanction the work, estimated to cost £141 million.

The eight-mile stretch between the two towns was closed down in 1969. It had previously connected the railway from London to Uckfield, via Crowborough, parts of Surrey and Croydon, to the south coast lines running east and west from Lewes.

If it was rebuilt rail services currently terminating at Uckfield could continue to Newhaven or Eastbourne, removing the need for the existing trains to those towns to be on the Brighton mainline.

A connected Uckfield line would be the shortest alternative route to the Sussex coast by a significant margin.

Coun Davey last night said the £141 million cost represented excellent value for money compared to the price of road-building projects and the council should battle to encourage the scheme.

He said: "This rail link will represent a significant shift away from increasing car dependency."

The Network Rail study was conducted following a campaign involving the councils of Uckfield, Crowborough, Lewes and Wealden and local MPs Norman Baker and Charles Hendry.

Those groups, who have argued the railway would give a huge boost to Sussex's economy, have continued to lobby Lord Adonis, who has made clear he does not see it as a priority.

The city council motion was welcomed by commuters in Brighton last night, who have been signing up in their dozens to the Save Our Service campaign to voice their frustration at the cramped condition of trains and slow and unreliable services.

Commuter Mia Soar, from central Brighton, said: "It's about time they did something like this. They badly need to relieve the congestion on the mainline. It takes 45 minutes to get to London off-peak but during the rush hours that goes up to an hour and 20 minutes just because of the traffic."