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Train From London to Seaford and back

Are there specific train lines we should take (or purchase sites) to get from London to the little coastal town of Seaford (in Sussex)?

After our tour ends we will be spending a few days in London and would like to take a day trip down to Seaford to hopefully meet an author we're interested in at a personal appearance. The rail trip seems to be the fastest but it seems that we have a choice between the Gatwick Express to Brighton and a transfer or Southern down to Lewes and a transfer. Looking at the National Rail and Trainline sites doesn't give us any further insights. We will need to ride back fairly late that night and need our trip to be reliable, since we fly out the next morning.

Is there a preferred rail company we should try to book? Other than our flights, this is the only part of our trip that we have to plan ourselves and honestly we just need to pick the best option.

Posted by
10055 posts

It sort of depends where you are starting from in London as either route is acceptable.
There are also Southern and Thameslink trains to Brighton (Thameslink have come from a long way north but call at Kings Cross, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars and London Bridge).
The 'normal ' route is via Lewes.

My preference would be to get to Victoria and take Southern changing at Lewes. If you can commit to specific trains you can get Advance Fares from £8 each way, and trains are every 30 minutes

You can buy from Southern or any train company website. If you have credit card issues with Southern use the LNER website.

If you can't commit to specific trains the full return fare is £37.40.

However, and neither National Rail or the Trainline will tell you this, if your outward journey is after 10am weekdays (anytime weekends) buy a Southern Railway day save ticket, only on their own website, at least 3 days before, for £26.
That gives unlimited travel for the day on their trains.
So you could route via Brighton one way and the direct via Lewes the other way If you wanted.

Posted by
2 posts

Wow, those Southern Day Save tickets are an extremely good deal for what we're trying to do. Thanks so much.