Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

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 down the line from , measured via Redhill. It is operated 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 ...

. The station is the last stop 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 ...

before it joins 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 ...

History

The single track branch line of 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 ...

between Three Bridges and

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 ...

was opened on 14 February 1848.

and

Faygate Faygate is a village in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A264 road 3.4 miles (5.4 km) south west of Crawley. It has a railway station on the Arun Valley Line with trains connecting to London and Portsmouth. The ...

were intermediate stations, each with two platforms to enable trains to pass. The line was doubled throughout during 1862 to coincide with the extension of the railway from Horsham to the Arun Valley. The first Crawley station was situated immediately adjacent to the main High Street, with station buildings on the north side of the railway line. With the continued development of the

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

during the 1950s and 1960s it soon became clear that the station was too small, and a new station building was opened 28 July 1968 at the current site. The new station was funded by a six-storey commercial development above the new

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

station. The original station buildings were demolished in August 1968, but the platforms still survive. A planning application was approved on 16 August 2016 for the demolition and redevelopment of the station buildings to include residential apartments, retail space and multi-storey car parking. In 2020, an accessible footbridge with lifts was installed. It was due to open by autumn 2020.

Facilities

*Concourse *Ticket office (×2) *Quick Ticket *Vending machine *Pumpkin Cafe *Waiting room (×2) *Toilets *Car park *Bicycle storage *Ticket barriers

Services

Services at Crawley are operated by

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 ...

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 Gatwick Airport, and * 2 tph to (stopping) * 1 tph to Portsmouth & Southsea and , dividing at Horsham * 1 tph to and Bognor Regis, dividing at Horsham On Sundays, there is an hourly service between London Victoria, Bognor Regis and Portsmouth Harbour and an hourly service between Horsham and London Bridge only.

Signal box

The original signal box, dating from 1877, survives. It is a tall box with a timber superstructure on a brick base and was built by the firm of

Saxby and Farmer John Saxby (17 August 1821 – 22 April 1913) was an English engineer from Brighton, noted for his work in railway signalling and the invention of the interlocking system of points and signals. He was later a partner in the firm Saxby and Farmer ...

. It was made redundant in 1978 when the railway

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 ...

gates were removed. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and has recently been partially restored. The former goods yard to the east of the old Crawley Station was closed in the 1960s and demolished to make way for the new station.

References

External links

{{coord, 51.112, N, 0.187, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway station, Crawley Transport in Crawley Railway stations in West Sussex DfT Category D stations Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968 Railway stations opened by British Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1968 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway 1848 establishments in England