West Coastway line

West Coastway Line
distances from Brighton 0 mi 00 ch 0 km South Western Main Line to Redbridge Southampton Central Southampton Tunnel to Southampton Docks St Denys South Western Main Line to Eastleigh River Itchen Bitterne Woolston Sholing Netley Netley Hospital Hamble Hamble-le-Rice oil terminal Bursledon Swanwick Eastleigh to Fareham Line to Eastleigh Fareham Fareham to Gosport Line to Fort Brockhurst Portchester Paulsgrove Halt Cosham Isle of Wight ferry services Portsmouth Harbour 45 mi 36 ch 73.14 km Portsmouth and Southsea 44 mi 50 ch 71.82 km Fratton 43 mi 64 ch 70.49 km Hilsea 41 mi 41 ch 66.81 km Cosham Junction 41 mi 04 ch 66.06 km Portcreek Junction 41 mi 03 ch 66.04 km Farlington Halt Farlington Junction 40 mi 38 ch 65.14 km Bedhampton 38 mi 14 ch 61.44 km Havant 37 mi 41 ch 60.37 km Hayling Island Branch Line to Hayling Island Portsmouth Direct Line to Guildford Warblington 36 mi 66 ch 59.26 km Emsworth 35 mi 50 ch 57.33 km Southbourne 34 mi 16 ch 55.04 km Nutbourne 33 mi 14 ch 53.39 km Bosham 31 mi 43 ch 50.75 km Fishbourne 30 mi 12 ch 48.52 km Midhurst Railways to Midhurst West Sussex Railway to Selsey Beach Chichester 28 mi 51 ch 46.09 km Drayton(closed 1930) Woodgate(closed 1864) Bognor Regis 25 mi 75 ch 41.74 km Barnham 22 mi 29 ch 35.99 km Yapton(closed 1864) Ford 19 mi 55 ch 31.68 km Arun Bridge over River Arun Ford Junction 19 mi 31 ch 31.2 km Littlehampton Junction Arundel Junction 19 mi 01 ch 30.6 km Littlehampton Arun Valley Line to Horsham Lyminster(closed 1914) Arundel & Littlehampton Angmering 15 mi 44 ch 25.03 km Goring-by-Sea 13 mi 07 ch 21.06 km Durrington-on-Sea 12 mi 13 ch 19.57 km West Worthing 11 mi 30 ch 18.31 km Worthing 10 mi 46 ch 17.02 km East Worthing 9 mi 55 ch 15.59 km Lancing 8 mi 19 ch 13.26 km Shoreham Airport Halt 6 mi 77 ch 11.21 km Shoreham Viaduct over River Adur Steyning Line to Christ's Hospital Shoreham-by-Sea 5 mi 69 ch 9.43 km Kingston-on-Sea(closed 1879) Southwick 4 mi 30 ch 7.04 km Fishersgate 3 mi 47 ch 5.77 km Portslade 2 mi 73 ch 4.69 km Brighton and Dyke Railway to The Dyke 2 mi 01 ch 3.24 km Dyke Junction Halt(closed 1932) Aldrington 1 mi 74 ch 3.1 km Hove 1 mi 35 ch 2.31 km Hove Junction Cliftonville Spur Holland Road Halt 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove(first station) 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove Tunnel ( 220 yd 201 m ) Cliftonville Tunnel Brighton 0 mi 00 ch 0 km Brighton Main Line to Wivelsfield East Coastway Line to Lewes

The West Coastway line is a railway line in England, along the south coast of West Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton,^[1][2][3] plus the short branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. At the eastern end, the East Coastway line continues the route from Brighton to Ashford International, via Lewes, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings and Ore.

The line east of Portsmouth was electrified (750 V DC third rail) by the Southern Railway during the inter-war years in two stages. Stage one was from Brighton to West Worthing in 1933 ^[4][5], and stage two in 1938 was from West Worthing to Havant (where it joined up with the electrified Portsmouth Direct Line), including the Littlehampton and Bognor branches.

For the purposes of this article, all the stations from Brighton to Southampton are included, although the ex-LSWR lines west of Farlington Junction were worked as a completely separate entity until the late 1980's and were not electrified until then.

Services

Southern is the main operator of passenger services and stations on the line east of Portsmouth. Service patterns have varied over the years, but have always included a slow service (calling at most or all stations) from Brighton to Portsmouth. They also operate regular services from London Victoria via Gatwick which avoid Brighton by using the tunnel between Preston Park and Hove. These services run to Littlehampton (2016); in the past some have run to Chichester, Portsmouth and Southampton. There are also services from London Victoria via Gatwick and the Arun Valley Line that run either to Bognor Regis or along the West Coastway line, between Ford and Chichester, to Portsmouth or Southampton. All of the Southern services are operated by electric multiple-units. Historically, many of these trains have joined or divided en route, particularly at Barnham Junction, but currently at Horsham.

The section west of Portsmouth sees trains from multiple operators, although the stations are managed by South West Trains, who operate regular services from Portsmouth to Southampton and from Portsmouth to London Waterloo via Fareham, Eastleigh and Basingstoke. Great Western Railway operate diesel services from Portsmouth Harbour to Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central, with occasional services to the West Country or Great Malvern. Southern now operate hourly services between Brighton and Southampton Central as well as an hourly service between London Victoria and Southampton. In the past, some through trains were operated from Reading or Basingstoke to Portsmouth or Brighton. New service patterns were introduced in the December 2007 timetable because South West Trains were not required by their renewed franchise to operate their Brighton services which left free train paths which were quickly filled by Southern. The new West Coastway timetable initially suffered many teething problems with numerous cancellations and delays.

Prior to the 1980's electrification of the Hampshire lines, these were operated as a separate entity, with all trains running into Portsmouth and almost no services across the Cosham to Farlington triangle apart from a daily Brighton-Exeter through train.^[6] After dieselisation by 3H units in 1958, the general service pattern every hour was one semi-fast from Portsmouth to Southampton and Salisbury (some extended to Bristol], one stopping train to Southampton Central and one train to Botley and Eastleigh (some extended to Reading and, until 1966, Romsey via Chandlers Ford). The Southampton to London Victoria trains introduced at electrification created many new direct journey opportunities, from Southampton, Swanwick, Fareham and Cosham to the West Sussex coast and particularly to Gatwick Airport.

History

The lines now operated under the banner "West Coastway" have a complex history and were built in stages by five different companies between 1840 and 1889.

The line from Brighton to Shoreham was a branch of the London and Brighton Railway which opened 12 May 1840, before the completion of the main line. The extensions of this line to Worthing (opened 24 November 1845), to Arundel & Littlehampton (opened 16 March 1846) and to Chichester (opened 8 June 1846) were built by the Brighton and Chichester Railway. In July 1846 these two companies merged with others to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), which continued the line to Havant (opened 15 March 1847) and Portsmouth (opened 14 June 1847). Part of this section became jointly owned with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), following the opening of the LSWR line from Fareham to Portcreek Junction on 1 October 1848 (connecting to the Eastleigh to Fareham line).

The Southampton and Netley Railway built a line to connect with the Victoria Military Hospital at Netley, which opened 5 March 1866 and was operated by the LSWR. The final connecting link from Netley to Fareham was opened by the LSWR on 2 September 1889.

In the meanwhile the LBSCR opened the Littlehampton branch from Ford Junction on 17 August 1863 and the Bognor Regis branch from Barnham Junction on 1 June 1864.

Accidents and incidents

• On 22 September 1965, an electric multiple unit collided with a double decker bus on a level crossing between Angmering and Goring-by-Sea stations, due to errors by the crossing keeper. Eight people were injured and three killed.^[7]

The routes

• Brighton trains serving the West Coastway leave from platforms 1, 2 and 3 which curve round to leave the Brighton Main Line route to pass through.
• here was Holland Road Halt opened 1905 and closed 1956; when closed it was the only station on the West Coastway line to retain timber decking.^[8] This station was sited just west of the Holland Road bridge.

Note: To the east of the Holland Road bridge lay the site of a first Hove station, 1840 to 1880, the site was later used as a commercial coal yard ^[9]

• Aldrington opened as Dyke Junction Halt 1905 to serve the Devil's Dyke single-line branch (3.5 miles or 5.6 kilometres in length) opened 1887, closed 1938
• here is the now closed branch to Kingston Wharf, serving Shoreham Harbour
• here was the junction for the line to Horsham, opened 16 September 1861 and closed 7 March 1966. The line followed the valley of the River Adur
• here was Bungalow Town Halt opened 1910, later to serve Shoreham Airport, closed in 1940 for national security reasons^[10] (Shoreham Airport became an RAF base during WWII).
  • Littlehampton branch
  • This is a 2-mile (3.2 km) branch line opened as a single line in 1863 and doubled in 1887
• Ford, was Ford Junction: at the third node of the triangle
• Barnham was Barnham Junction until 1929 opened 1864 as the junction for
  • Bognor Regis branch
  • This a 3.5 miles (5.6 km) branch line
• Drayton station – closed
• Chichester Original terminus of the Brighton and Chichester Railway on 6 June 1846; present station opened 1847 when the line was extended to Havant. Junction for the West Sussex Railway opened in 1897, closed 1935; and for the LBSCR branch to Midhurst, opened 1881 and closed to passengers 1935.
• Havant: Junction for the L&SWR Portsmouth Direct Line through Petersfield and also for the LBSCR Hayling Island branch line opened 16 July 1867, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length with two intermediate stations serving Langstone and North Hayling. The line closed in 1963.
• here there is a triangular junction for the two routes to Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour. After Farlington Junction and Portcreek Junction (between which was the now closed Farlington station) Portsmouth Direct Line trains use the joint L&SWR/LBSCR metals to Portsmouth. The main West Coastway route travels across the triangle to Cosham Junction where the L&SWR section, opened on 2 September 1889, begins:
• Cosham
• Portchester
• Fareham First opened in 1841 as part of the Eastleigh-Fareham line. The lines to Portsmouth via Cosham and Southampton via Netley opened in 1848 and 1889 respectively (see dates above). Here were also junctions for Gosport (the original connection from London to the Portsmouth area) and to Alton via the Meon valley – both closed.
• Swanwick
• Bursledon
• Hamble
• Netley Original terminus of the Southampton and Netley Railway, built to serve the Military Hospital, which had its own short railway and station. The line from here to St Denys was originally single track (later doubled)
• Sholing
• Woolston
• Bitterne on the outskirts of Southampton. Here was a passing point when the line was single track.

With the junction at St Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of the South Western Main Line

References

External links

• Southern Railway map, including the West Coastway Route
• Brighton to Hove cab ride video produced by British Rail (on YouTube)