Sussex trains back to normal after more disruption

Train services in East and West Sussex have returned to normal after being hit with disruption earlier, a railway company has announced.

Southern Railway said a fault with the electric third rail in the Brighton area meant some lines were blocked on Monday morning.

Services have since since returned to normal following the earlier disruption, the company said.

Network Rail apologised to customers for the "really difficult morning".

It said its engineers had been working hard on site since the early hours.

Fewer lines than usual were open between Brighton and Preston Park as a result of the fault.

Southern services between Seaford and Brighton did not run throughout the morning.

The company announced they were restored at midday.

Services were also disrupted between Littlehampton, Worthing and Horsham due to a separate signalling fault, but lines have now reopened and travel is expected to return to normal by 15:00 BST, a Southern spokesperson said.

Gatwick Express services also only ran between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria, with customers advised they could use Thameslink services from Brighton at no extra cost.

Thameslink services were also facing delays and cancellations, though the company said just before 09:00 its services were no longer being disrupted.

Southern urged customers to allow at least 30 minutes of extra time for journeys on affected routes.

"Please check journey planning tools, and when travelling, check station screens and listen to announcements," it said.

Affected customers can be entitled to compensation if they experience delays.

The problems came after major disruption on Thursday, which saw South Western Railway, CrossCountry, Southern, Gatwick Express, the London Overground, Great Western Railway and Thameslink all delay or cancel services.

Problems were then blamed on an issue affecting communications between trains and signallers.

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