Trains are back to normal after derailment delays

Passengers arriving at the town's railway station last Friday, Saturday and Sunday had to rely on a stand-in fleet of double deckers and coaches to reach Barnham.

The town's already-reduced rail service to take account of the 22m resignalling works at Barnham was unexpectedly totally put out of action by a derailment early last Friday.

The first of the train's eight carriages which made up the 5.35am Southern service to Brighton was derailed as it left Bognor railway station. It was travelling at less than 10mph.

Only a handful of passengers were on board. No-one was injured. But the accident on the second train out of the station that day meant the following 16 departing services that morning, and a similar number in the afternoon, couldn't operate.

Rail workers spent all day at the scene before the displaced carriage was moved back on to the track using hydraulics and wooden blocks. That process began at 7pm and took about an hour.

A Southern spokesman said: "The train was taken back into Bognor station where work took place on it and the track during the weekend."

The cause of the derailment was believed to be a set of points, the spokesman added, though he stressed an official investigation was still ongoing.

The inability of trains to get in or out of the station meant services along the Sussex coast suffered some disruption because rolling stock was in the wrong places.

Southern brought in 20 extra buses to add to those already running a ten-minute shuttle service to Barnham to ensure passengers could still make connections there.

Train services were scheduled to be completely replaced by buses last weekend anyway to enable the resignalling work to be completed.

The replacement buses were kept on standby on Monday morning just in case they were required.

A total of 11 of the vehicles were parked outside the station at about 8.30am, but the restoration of normal services meant they were not needed.

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