Opportunity to hearfrom railway bosses

The future of high speed rail in the area will be one of the items up for discussion when the Marshlink Action Group holds its AGM.
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trains at Rye ENGSNL00120110726162215

The AGM is taking place at Rye Town Hall on Friday April 15 at 7pm and will include a question and answer session.

Guest speakers include Ray Chapman, Chairman of East Sussex Rail Alliance, who is a driving force behind bringing the Javelin service to the MarshLink and now a member of the High Speed Working Group recently established to bring this proposal to fruition.

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Also speaking will be Paul Best, Senior Strategic Planner, Network Rail who will comment on recent infrastructure developments in the area (in particular the MarshLink line).

Of particular interest to MLAG at the moment, he is heavily involved in assessing infrastructure requirements that would affect the viability of a direct Javelin service from London to Rye, Hastings and Bexhill.

Marshlink chairman Stuart Harland said: “He may also be able to inform us about a consultation that is soon to take place in which views of the public are sought on such matters as the proposed Javelin service.”

He said: “Other speakers include Martin Grier, Head of Drivers, Southern Railway who will be commenting on the past year’s performance, problems (and solutions?) encountered and, perhaps, MLAG’s objectives, and Roger Blake, Director of Railfuture who will have an independent view on rail opportunities and development, noting that the stated role of Railfuture is ‘to campaign for a bigger, better railway in Britain’.

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“The formal meeting will start at 7pm with presentations, followed by questions, at around 7.15pm to allow attendees to get to the meeting by train.

“Come to the meeting if you have any issues with the current MarshLink services you’d like to share or want to hear or comment on the latest proposals for the Javelin service.

“You may find the current proposals are somewhat different to what they were at last year’s AGM.

“Meanwhile, Marshliink Action Group’s ’new website (still at www.mlag.org.uk) should be operational by the time of the meeting but is formally still under development.”

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The line is the only one along with the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line in South East England that still runs on diesel and has not yet been electrified.

Despite several announcements of its closure in its past, it survived the Beeching Axe and is now considered a potentially significant line due to High Speed 1 and Hastings.

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