I agree with recent letters in The Argus that the reopening of the Uckfield to Lewes line would create an excellent alternative route between Brighton and London, avoiding the Balcombe bottleneck.

It was closed to allow the Phoenix Causeway development in Lewes in 1970, thus enabling the conversion of the Cuifail tunnel from a rail freight tunnel to a road tunnel. Rail services were sacrificed to realise the aspirations of the influential road lobby.

The line from Uckfield to East Croydon was allowed to survive but was then mutilated by its conversion from two tracks to a single track in the 1980s. Do the planners understand what a nightmare and mental strain the train drivers are forced to endure as a consequence of the conversion to single track?

Have these planners any idea what it is like to sit at the front of a 300-ton juggernaut hurtling at 90mph round blind bends, through wind rain and snow, through dark tunnels knowing that even in an emergency their stopping distance can be well beyond their range of vision?

The Cowden rail disaster occurred on this line when two trains collided head on. At the public inquiry the planners’ decisions went unchallenged.

These planners and policymakers should be forced on to public transport and made to wait for delayed trains on rain-swept platforms.

If they want to demonstrate democratic accountability then reopen the Lewes to Uckfield line.

Robert Evans, Mountfield Road, Eastbourne