Horsham railway station

Horsham railway station serves the town of Horsham in West Sussex, England. It is 37 miles 56 chains (60.7 km) down the line from London Bridge, measured via Redhill, on the Arun Valley Line and the Sutton & Mole Valley Lines, and train services are provided by Southern. Services on the Sutton & Mole Valley Line from London Victoria via Dorking terminate here, the others continue into the Arun Valley: a half-hourly service from London Victoria to Southampton Central or Portsmouth Harbour (alternating) and Bognor Regis. These trains usually divide here with the front (Southampton/Portsmouth) portion travelling fast (next stop Barnham) and the rear (Bognor Regis) half providing stopping services.

Horsham
Location	Horsham, District of Horsham England
Coordinates	51.066°N 0.319°W
Grid reference	TQ178309
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	HRH
Classification	DfT category C2
History
Opened	14 February 1848
Passengers
2015/16	2.841 million
2016/17	2.530 million
2017/18	2.690 million
Interchange	0.141 million
2018/19	2.872 million
Interchange	0.190 million
2019/20	2.855 million
Interchange	0.125 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

A new Thameslink service (TL5) entered service in March 2018, running from Horsham to Peterborough (via Redhill). This now connects London Bridge, Farringdon and Kings Cross St Pancras in central London, through north London, to Huntingdon and Peterborough.

History

Horsham would have been an important midway point in two of the original proposals for a London to Brighton railway via the Adur valley but in the event Sir John Rennie's proposed direct line through Three Bridges (in east Crawley) and Haywards Heath was given parliamentary approval. As a result, the original Horsham station was the terminus of a single track branch line from Three Bridges opened by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) in February 1848.

The down line from Horsham railway station.

Between 1859 and 1867, the station was enlarged on several occasions to coincide with the doubling of the branch line from Three Bridges; the extension of the railway from Horsham along the Arun Valley Line; the opening of new lines from Horsham to Shoreham via Steyning and from Christ's Hospital to Guildford. Finally, in 1867, a new route to Dorking, Leatherhead and thence to London, was opened.[1] The station was again partially rebuilt and resignalled, with three signal boxes, in 1875.[2]

RCTS Sussex Rail Tour in 1962

The present station was built by the Southern Railway in the International Modern Style in 1938 to coincide with the electrification of the line. The building was designed by James Robb Scott and is grade II listed, see external links below. The lines to Guildford and Shoreham both fell victim to the Beeching Axe in the mid 1960s, the former being closed to passengers on 14 June 1965 and the latter on 7 March 1966.

In September 2011, the station frontage was closed to undergo extensive refurbishment work to the main ticket hall. It reopened late in 2012 with a new side entrance, internal lift access, relocated barriers and stairway, a new ticket office, and new information screens. The platforms received a rebuild of the roofing and refurbished waiting rooms. Previously, the building was shared with Henfield Hire, who vacated in order to give the floor space needed to create the new features and new ceiling and lights and so completing a complete reconfiguration of the layout.

Accidents and incidents

• On 9 January 1972, an engineers train overran signals and was in a rear-end collision with an electric multiple unit at the station. Fifteen people were injured. The crew of the engineers train had failed to check their brakes on departure from Three Bridges and thus failed to discover that the isolation cock between the two locomotives had not been opened.[3]

Services

Services are operated by Southern and Thameslink. As of May 2020, the off-peak service is:[4][5][6]

• 2 tph to London Victoria via Gatwick Airport
• 1 tph to London Victoria via Epsom and Sutton
• 2 tph to Peterborough via Gatwick Airport, London Bridge and Stevenage
• 1 tph to Portsmouth Harbour (non-stop to Barnham)
• 1 tph to Southampton Central (non-stop to Barnham)
• 2 tph to Bognor Regis (1 semi-fast fast, 1 all-stations)

On Sundays, the service to London Victoria via Epsom does not run. In addition, the service to Peterborough is reduced to 1 tph and only runs as far as London Bridge. Mainline services are reduced to 1 tph with no service to Southampton and trains dividing at Barnham instead of Horsham.

Motive power depot

A small wooden motive power depot was built at the station in 1876.[7] This was replaced by a brick-built ten-road semi-roundhouse together with a 46 ft (14 metre) turntable in 1880. This in turn was extended with a further eight-roads in 1900. In 1927 the Southern Railway installed a 55 ft (16.8 metre) turntable. This depot was closed in 1964.[8]

Signalbox

Nearby is the type 13 signal box dating from 1938, which is also Grade II listed. It closed in 2005 when its controls were transferred to Three Bridges Integrated Electronic Control Centre.

New Services

New services from Horsham have been introduced to destinations north of central London from December 2018.[9] The new timetable was originally proposed in May 2014, with services between Horsham and London Bridge extended to Peterborough via St Pancras International, Stevenage and St Neots.

References

1. Turner, John Howard (1978). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 2 Establishment and Growth. Batsford. pp. 99–106, 111–2. ISBN 0-7134-1198-8.
2. Turner, John Howard (1979). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 3 Completion and Maturity. Batsford. p. 67. ISBN 0-7134-1389-1.
3. Moody, G. T. (1979) [1957]. Southern Electric 1909–1979 (Fifth ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan Ltd. pp. 216–17. ISBN 0 7110 0924 4.
4. "Timetable 28: Portsmouth and Southampton to London via Horsham" (PDF). Southern, December 2019.
5. "Timetable 33: Horsham and Dorking to London" (PDF). Southern, December 2019.
6. "Timetable 10: Peterborough to Horsham" (PDF). Thameslink, December 2019.
7. Turner (1979), p.66.
8. Hawkins, Chris and Reeves, George. (1979). An historical survey of Southern sheds. Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-86093-020-3. p.45.
9. Proposed Thameslink service pattern

External links

• Train times and station information for Horsham railway station from National Rail
• Route Map and Timetable for Sutton & Mole Valley Line
• Route Map and Timetable for Arun Valley Lines
• Photos of the station and signal box together with English Heritage listing description
• Feature about the history of the station and signal box since 1834