Littlehaven railway station serves the areas of Littlehaven,

Holbrook Holbrook may refer to: Places England *Holbrook, Derbyshire, a village *Holbrook, Somerset, a hamlet in Charlton Musgrove *Holbrook, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, a former mining village in Mosborough ward, now known as Halfway *Holbrook, Suffolk, a ...

and

Roffey Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

in the northeast of the town of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

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 ar ...

, England. It is 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 ...

, down the line from , measured via Redhill.

History

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 ...

opened the first part of the line in 1848. However, the stations at Littlehaven,

Roffey Road Halt Roffey Road Halt is a now disused station 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 ...

and nearby Ifield were not opened until 1907; Littlehaven opened as Rusper Road Halt and subsequently changed to Littlehaven Crossing Halt and then Littlehaven Halt all within the first year of service. Similarly, Ifield was initially known as ''Lyons Crossing Halt''.

closed in 1937. The station was completely rebuilt with minimal facilities after traffic decreased. In 2013, work began to extend the platforms to handle 8 carriages (up from 4), which will reduce delays caused by longer trains blocking the road while stopped. In 2021, platform 2 was extended to handle 12 carriages, to allow passengers to embark and disembark from the whole train without walking down the train, and to avoid trains blocking the road crossing.

Level crossing

There is a

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

at the eastern (London) end of the platforms, where the line crosses Rusper Road. The crossing gates were considered for replacement with modern barriers in the early 1990s but as there was a history of late passengers running over the crossing to catch their train it was dismissed. Therefore, the adjacent signal box was staffed 24 hours a day. In October 2012 the level crossing was rebuilt and automatic barriers installed to replace the old fashioned gates. This meant that the crossing operator's job was now redundant, with CCTV used to control the crossing from the Three Bridges signal centre. This upgrade was finally made necessary due to a number of incidents of people driving through the wooden gates when closed, resulting in expensive replacement gates having to be constructed.

Facilities

Facilities include disabled access to both platforms via side ramps from the level crossing, and a ticket office on the Horsham-bound platform. Its opening hours are 0640–1334 Monday to Saturday only. In early 2022, Govia Thameslink Railway intend to close the current ticket office permanently. Ticket vending machines are located on both platforms for customers to purchase tickets. Their sales information highlighted that 96% of pre Covid ticket sales at Littlehaven were purchased via the ticket vending machines.

Services

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 m ...

operate all off-peak services at Littlehaven using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to via Redhill, and * 2 tph to The station is also served by a limited number of

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

services to , , Portsmouth & Southsea and . On Sundays, there is an hourly service in each direction although northbound trains run to London Bridge only.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Redhill=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y Horsham District Railway stations in West Sussex Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1907 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway