In the piece on Strategic Rail Authority chief Richard Bowker's "awayday" to Brighton (The Argus, April 2), he is quoted as warning that too many trains can undermine service reliability and the existing network must be improved before looking at the Lewes-Uckfield re-opening.

If Mr Bowker had a little more imagination, he would see the folly of leaving the Uckfield line as a dead-end branch - now lacking even a London service - while the adjacent Brighton and Hastings lines present a picture of ever-worsening overcrowding and crippling train delays.

Two years ago, Connex chief Olivier Brousse said revitalising the Uckfield line through to the Sussex coast was the only way of ever relieving the Brighton line.

He was right. This is not about the odd shopping trip from Uckfield to Lewes but about opening up an additional and much-needed rail route for Sussex between the coast and London.

Along with most of the rail industry, we gave up any hope of getting a sensible strategy from the SRA long ago, and no one should expect pearls of wisdom from Mr Bowker now - or from the bureaucratic monster he very comfortably heads.

-Brian Hart, campaign director, Wealden Line Campaign, Uckfield