More trains laid on to serve town

The alterations to the timetable will be the biggest since steam was replaced by electric trains in 1938.

The most eye-catching aspect of the new Southern Railway schedule is a doubling in frequency of the off-peak service to London Victoria to two an hour.

But the alterations will also provide for more connections from Barnham to Portsmouth, Southampton and Littlehampton.

The overall impact of the changes from December 9 will mean more trains serving Bognor.

A Southern spokesman said the current off-peak pattern of an average of four trains a hour would increase to five.

The two to London would be joined by two to Barnham and one to Littlehampton.

Senior Southern Railways managers will be visiting Bognor station between 6.30am and 8.15pm next Wednesday to meet passengers and discuss the changes.

It is the first time such a roadshow has taken place at the station. Southern managing director Chris Burchell said: "The changes mean double the number of off-peak trains to London Victoria and more connecting trains from Barnham.

"A lot of time and thought has gone into re-designing our services to minimise the impact on passengers and make improvements where we can.

"We advise all passengers to check the new timetables before December 9 as there will be some changes to train times."

But the changes do not mean quicker journeys from Bognor to the capital.

Peak time timetables show journey times from Bognor to London Victoria remain unchanged overall. Some services are a couple of minutes shorter and some slightly longer around the usual time of one hour and 45 minutes.

Return journeys show the same pattern.

One big alteration passengers from Bognor will notice is that London trains will no longer wait at Barnham for a connecting service from Chichester.

This join will take place at Horsham to enable the Chichester train to stop only at Barnham to make the journey quicker. Arun Valley Rail Users' Assocation chairman Trevor Tupper said: "Apart from the extra services for London, there's no real change for Bognor's trains.

"As far as Bognor goes, Southern has not done too badly but it could have done better."

The changes have been prompted by the withdrawal of the South West Trains service between Basingstoke and Reading. This is a result of a new franchise. Southern has taken the chance to redesign its timetable to add more services along the West Coastway line, which serves Bognor and Barnham, to places such as Southampton and Portsmouth.

Southern claims the changes will mean 84 per cent of rail passengers in the area will see their services maintained or improved.

n Rail passengers at Barnham station will benefit from the changes. They will see enjoy faster trains to London, with journey times reduced by up to 15 minutes and an average of eight minutes.

Off-peak services to Southampton and Littlehampton will double to two an hour and those to Portsmouth will increase from two to three. Services to Bognor stay the same overall. There will still be two trains an hour to Worthing and Brighton but services to smaller stations on that route will be cut from two to one.