Burgess Hill railway station 1939586 161404a0

Burgess Hill railway station is on the

Brighton Main Line The Brighton Main Line (also known as the South Central Main Line) is a major railway line in the United Kingdom that links Brighton, on the south coast of England, with central London. In London the line has two branches, out of and station ...

, serving the town of

Burgess Hill Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish in West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town, Chichester. It ...

, West Sussex. It is down the line from via and is situated between and on the main line. Train services are provided by

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 ...

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 m ...

History

The first station at Burgess Hill was opened on 21 September 1841 by the

London and Brighton Railway The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access fro ...

(L&BR), at the time of the completion of the route to Brighton. The original facilities were all in the small wooden hut (which still stands as a refurbished waiting room on platform 1) and wooden platforms set beside the main line. The L&BR became 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 ...

(LB&SCR) in 1846 and a track plan of the station dating from 1874 shows that by then several sidings and a signal box had been constructed at the station. The present station building dates from 1877 and is typical of LB&SCR stations of the period.

Layout and facilities

The station has a typical double-track layout, with two side platforms each long enough to hold a 12-car train.Station facilities for Burgess Hill
- National Rail Enquiries Both platforms are signalled bidirectionally, but in normal service platform 1 is used by northbound services towards London (and beyond to Bedford and Cambridge), while platform 2 is for southbound trains to Brighton and Littlehampton. Both platforms are covered by shelters approximately four carriages long at the north end, and there are also smaller shelters further down the platforms. There is a small café and an accessible toilet located on platform 1 and a small waiting room on platform 2. The station has two car parks: the main one next to platform 1 and a smaller one adjacent to platform 2. Both car parks include disabled parking spaces. There are three entrances/exits to and from the station, all featuring

ticket barriers In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...

. The main entrance/exit is through the station building on Station Road, which includes the ticket office and also houses a small newsagent and a cash machine. Access to the platforms from the station building is via two sheltered sets of stairs, which also act as a footbridge between the two platforms. The other two entrances/exits link the platforms directly with the station's car parks. These entrances/exits are both fully wheelchair-accessible, but each one only connects directly to one of the platforms - access to the other platform is only via the aforementioned footbridge. This means that step-free access is available to both platforms, but step-free access ''between'' the two platforms is only possible by venturing outside the station. Ticket machines are located by each of the three entrances.

Refurbishments

In November 2020, a £1.2 million refurbishment was carried out at Burgess Hill station. This introduced a new waiting room on the northbound platform 1, inside of the original 1841 building which was originally a parcels store. Another smaller waiting room was refurbished with new furniture on the southbound platform 2. Refurbishments were also carried out to the two 50 metre long platform canopies, replacing the original cast iron and timber structure with a more modern steel structure. The surface of both platforms is also currently being repaved as of May 2021.

Services

Off-peak, services at Burgess Hill are operated by

and

using and

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 * 2 tph to via London Bridge * 2 tph to * 4 tph to (2 of these run non-stop and 2 call at all stations) * 2 tph to via During the peak hours and on Saturdays, the service between London Victoria and Littlehampton is increased to 2 tph. There are also a number of peak hour Thameslink services to Littlehampton. In addition, the station is served by a number of peak hour

Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is a high-frequency rail passenger service between , Gatwick Airport, and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, ...

services which usually pass through Burgess Hill. These services run non-stop from to London Victoria and are operated using EMUs.

Gallery

File:Burgess Hill Station 04.JPG, Main street-level building on Station Road, housing the ticket office and newsagent File:Burgess Hill Station 02.JPG, An original 1841 building (formerly a parcels store) on Platform 1 File:Burgess Hill station looking southbound to Hassocks.jpg, View from platform 2 (southbound) looking towards Hassocks. File:Burgess Hill station Class 700 at P1.jpg,

Class 700155 with a rainbow livery to celebrate

gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...

. File:Burgess Hill station Class 700 approaching from Hassocks to Platform 1.jpg, Southward view from Platform 1, with a

Class 700 approaching from Hassocks. File:Burgess Hill station Platform 1 with social distancing sticker on ground.jpg, An outdoor vinyl sticker promoting

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

on Platform 1. File:Burgess Hill station renovations informations board.jpg, Public noticeboard documenting the station renovations.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, CityFlyer=y, Brighton Express=y, Gatwick Express=y, Mainline West=y, SE None=y Burgess Hill Railway stations in West Sussex DfT Category C2 stations Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway