A fault with the signalling system between Worthing and Barnham is causing disruption to services between these stations. As a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed or revised.

Disruption is expected until 22:00.

Customer Advice

No trains will run between Brighton, Worthing, and Barnham until further notice.

A fault with the signalling system in the worthing area, along with a fault with a set of points in the same area, is causing severe disruption to all trains which run on the West Coast routes.

If you are travelling now, your journey may be expected to take up to 45 minutes longer than usual, and you will need to use an alternative route to reach your destination.

This will affect trains which run between:

• Brighton and Southampton Central
• Brighton and Portsmouth
• London Victoria and Littlehampton

This may also cause delays and disruption to other routes along the West Coast, including trains which run to or from Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.

You can use your ticket to travel at no extra cost on:

• Southern trains on any reasonable route to your destination
• Brighton & Hove Buses between Brighton and Shoreham-by-Sea
• Stagecoach Buses 700 on routes between

- Brighton and Littlehampton

- Littlehampton, Bognor, Chichester, and Portsmouth

• London Underground on any reasonable route
• South Western Railway on routes between:

- Southampton Central and London Waterloo via Clapham Junction

- Portsmouth, Havant, and London Waterloo via Clapham Junction

Please note that these alternatives will extend your journey times by up to an additional 30 minutes, especially if your journey includes replacement road transport.

To help you plan your journey, alternative route maps can be found here and if you are travelling on TfL services, you can plan your journey in advance on their website here

Before travelling, please check journey planners and station information boards, and allow extra time to reach your destination.

Check the live map here to see if your journey has been affected.

Can you tell me more about the incident?

Our west coast routes are being affected by a fault with the signalling system - in this case, a fault known as a Track Circuit Failure - and also a fault with a set of points. Both of these issues are located in the Worthing area.

This part of the network uses track circuits to detect the position of trains. These are electrical systems which monitor whether a train is on a section of track. They operate as part of the signalling system, which is designed to be "fail safe".

When a track circuit fails, the signalling system will interpret this as a train remaining in place, even though there may not be a train present at all, or the previous service may have long since left the area.

As a result, further trains cannot be automatically allowed onto the relevant section of track. Train drivers will be stopped by red signals on approach. They will then get verbal permission from the signaller so that they can proceed, and will run at a heavily-reduced speed as far as the next signal. This is so that the drivers will stop safely if they see anything ahead of them.

In some areas, the sections between signals can be several miles long, so this can result in delays building up. Even with shorter sections of track affected, there would still be a delay of at least a few minutes to each journey.

Track circuit faults can be caused by a number of different issues, including electronic faults or obstructions on the track. Network Rail manage the signalling system, including track circuits, and their staff will be investigating as quickly as possible. We're closely monitoring progress updates, and we'd like to thank you for your patience.

Points are moveable sections of track that allow trains to be routed to their destination.

Points can stop moving correctly for a number of reasons. For example, there may be an obstruction in the moving parts, or the electronic control systems may have developed a fault.

Whilst this is being done, we will be monitoring progress closely. At times, replacement parts may be needed, or specialist advice from suppliers, which is why some points failures take longer to resolve than others.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.​​​​​​​

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.