Council leaders in Sussex will be invited to talks with rail industry officials to discuss the ear-splitting problem of new trains' noisy horns.

The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) is conducting a review following complaints from residents across Sussex who say they are being kept awake at night by the loud hooters of South Central's Electrostar trains and woken in the early hours.

The regulator expects to publish new rules on sounding the horns, which are more than twice as loud as those fitted to old slam-door trains, early next month.

Now it is to hold talks with councils in areas most seriously affected by the noise nuisance, including leaders in Brighton and Hove, Eastbourne and Worthing.

An RSSB spokeswoman said: "Obviously the new trains have more powerful warning equipment and we need to look at that."

Meanwhile, Hove MP Ivor Caplin told horn protesters he was given "misleading information" about what action the RSSB was taking to silence the booming hooters.

He said verbal assurances from the regulator about a night-time ban had been wrong in a letter to residents.

Mr Caplin had earlier told them the blasts would stop between 11.30pm and 7am.

But in a subsequent written response to the MP's office, the RSSB said night-time restrictions would only apply to trains approaching level crossings.

Drivers can sound horns at night when entering or leaving tunnels, at stations if sight lines are obscured, when shunting and in some other situations.

Mr Caplin said: "I am disappointed with the RSSB's approach to this but at least they have been good enough to stand up and accept they gave us the wrong information."

The RSSB said it did not believe it had been misleading and would have been happier if Mr Caplin had waited for written details.

Martin Dzelzainis, of Highdown Road, Hove, who regularly gets woken at 5.20am, said: "I think Ivor Caplin jumped the gun, there is no night-time ban, there never was going to be a night-time ban."

Monday July 14, 2003