Horsham railway station serves the town of
Horsham in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
, England. It is down the line from , measured via , on the
Arun Valley Line
The Arun Valley line, also known as the Mid Sussex line, is part of the Southern- and Thameslink-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the r ...
and the
Sutton & Mole Valley Lines
The Sutton and Mole Valley lines were constructed between 1847 and 1868 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the London and South Western Railway and the LBSCR-sponsored Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway.
Services
Services ...
, 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 or (alternating) and . These trains usually divide here with the front (Southampton/Portsmouth) portion travelling fast (next stop ) and the rear (Bognor Regis) half providing stopping services.
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
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
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
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...
(LBSCR) in February 1848.
![horsham station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Horsham_station.jpg)
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 Arun Valley line, also known as the Mid Sussex line, is part of the Southern- and Thameslink-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the r ...
; the opening of new lines from Horsham to
Shoreham via
Steyning
Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the coastal town of Shoreham-by-Sea.
The smaller ...
and from
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...
to
Guildford. Finally, in 1867, a new
route to
Dorking,
Leatherhead
Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...
and thence to London, was opened. The station was again partially rebuilt and resignalled, with three signal boxes, in 1875.
![Horsham RCTS Sussex Rail Tour geograph-2683937-by-Ben-Brooksbank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Horsham_RCTS_Sussex_Rail_Tour_geograph-2683937-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg)
The present station was built by the
Southern Railway in the
International Modern Style in 1938 to coincide with the
electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
of the line. The building was designed by
James Robb Scott
James Robb Scott (11 February 1882 – 1965) was a Scottish architect who became the Chief Architect of the Southern Railway.
He was born on 11 February 1882 in the Gorbals, Glasgow, the son of Andrew Robb Scott (architect) and Mary Fletcher. H ...
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 and thus failed to discover that the isolation cock between the two locomotives had not been opened.
Services
Services at Horsham are operated by
Southern and
Thameslink
Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...
using and
EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
* 2 tph to via
* 1 tph to London Victoria via and
* 2 tph to via Gatwick Airport, and
* 1 tph to
Portsmouth & Southsea (non-stop to )
* 1 tph to (non-stop to Barnham)
* 2 tph to (1 semi-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
The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine she ...
was built at the station in 1876. This was replaced by a brick-built ten-road
semi-roundhouse together with a 46 ft (14 metre)
turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
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.
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.
Proposed Thameslink service pattern
/ref> The new timetable was originally proposed in May 2014, with services between Horsham and extended to Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
via St Pancras International, Stevenage and St Neots.
References
External links
Route Map and Timetable for Sutton & Mole Valley Line
Route Map and Timetable for Arun Valley Lines
of the station and signal box together with English Heritage listing description
about the history of the station and signal box since 1834
{{TSGN and SE Stations, Mole Valley=y, Mainline West=y, Redhill=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y
Horsham
Railway stations in West Sussex
DfT Category C2 stations
Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848
Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway
Grade II listed railway stations
Art Deco architecture in England
James Robb Scott buildings