WORK starts today to try to end horrific traffic jams around Brighton Station.

And in a separate bid to end transport problems, Railtrack is to spend £150 million improving journey times on the London to Brighton line.

There have been huge tailbacks around Brighton Station since work on the Gateway scheme to improve the front of the station started last year.

Rush hour traffic has backed up as far as the Seven Dials, irritating drivers and driving up taxi fares.

Now new sensors are being installed in the traffic lights outside the station to try to slash the queues.

They will detect buses ready to move off, giving them the green light. Southbound traffic will be then given preferential phasing when there are no buses waiting.

Both moves should reduce queues of traffic in Terminus Road between Seven Dials and the station.

There have been complaints ever since the Gateway scheme was introduced.

Streamline Taxis director Jack Dunkerton estimates the bottlenecks have added at least 50p to the average cab fare.

He said: "It's a traffic management problem. None of us is happy with it. The scheme around the station was poorly thought out."

The Gateway scheme also halved the size of the taxi rank at the front of the station and cabbies say it now takes them longer to get in and out.

Mr Dunkerton said: "The traffic lights by the entrance have slowed things down too.

"It used to be my boast that I could get anyone across town without passing through a traffic light. Nowadays you can't go anywhere without getting stuck at a red light."

Coun Mike Middleton, who represents Seven Dials ward, said: "The landscaping scheme has made the situation worse.

"The road next to the station has been narrowed and this means traffic tends to bottleneck. It's really the only through road for that part of the town.

"Having a set of traffic lights outside the main entrance slows things down further. Whereas traffic used to trickle through it has to stop now."

Meanwhile, Railtrack is expected to announce details of improvements to local rail services on Thursday as part of a £27 billion package to revamp Britain's railway system.

It will mean more tracks near Victoria Station, reducing bottlenecks for Connex trains.

Railtrack says the revamp will bring improvements to tracks, stations and services.

Chairman Sir Robert Horton is expected to announce the moves on Thursday and pledge to improve the punctuality of passenger trains by 7.5 per cent.

Shelley Atlas, of passengers' group Brighton Line Commuters, said: "Any money coming from Railtrack has to be an improvement. We get a lot of complaints about things like signal failures."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.