Three Bridges railway station is located in and named after the village of Three Bridges, which is now a district of Crawley,

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 at the point where 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 ...

diverges from 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 ...

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 ...

, down the line from via .

History

The original

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style railway station on the East side of the line at Three Bridges was opened in July 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 ...

at a point next to their proposed branch to Horsham. It was designed by the architect

David Mocatta David Alfred Mocatta (1806–1882) was a British architect and a member of the Anglo-Jewish Mocatta family. Early career David Alfred Mocatta was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1806, the son of the licensed bullion broker Moses Mocat ...

, and was one of a series of standardised modular buildings used by the railway. This building was demolished 5 May 1985. Mocatta's plans for the station indicate that it was originally going to be known as "Crawley" but according to ''The London and Brighton railway guide'', of 1841 and the 1846 timetable it was named "Three Bridges" from the time it was opened.

Enlargement

The London and Brighton Railway merged with others to become 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 ...

in 1846, and the branch to Horsham was opened two years later. Three Bridges was enlarged in July 1855 with the construction of a branch line to East Grinstead and again enlarged in 1906/9 at the time of the quadrupling of the main line. The present ticket office was then built on the west side of the line and new platforms and station buildings for the new lines.

Electrification

Three Bridges was a key site for 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 ...

scheme for 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 ...

during 1932/33, housing the control room for the scheme, and was one of three locations where current was taken from the national network and transmitted to substations. Electric multiple unit trains began to run between London and Three Bridges on 17 July 1932. The line was electrified throughout on 30 December. At the same time the practice of using "

slip coach A slip coach, slip carriage or slip portion in Britain and Ireland, also known as a flying switch in North America, is one or more carriages designed to be uncoupled from the rear of a moving train. The detached portion continued under its own m ...

es" for East Grinstead at Three Bridges from expresses bound for the south coast was abandoned by the Southern Railway. The line from Three Bridges to Horsham was electrified in May 1938. The single-track branch line to East Grinstead was never electrified. It remained steam operated, using

tank locomotives A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomo ...

of the M7 and H classes hauling

push–pull train Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not. A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via ...

s. After the end of steam operation in 1964, it was then briefly operated by diesel-electric multiple units of

British Rail Class 205 The British Rail Class 205 ( 3H) diesel-electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh from 1957 to 1962, and in service for 47 years from BR Southern Region to Connex South Central and finally to the Southern franchise. They were event ...

but closed on 2 January 1967.

Accidents

There have been four recorded accidents at Three Bridges station, the first two of which were relatively minor and involved no injuries. On 12 April 1858 an engine collided with passenger carriages, and on 18 October 1863 an excursion train hit the buffer stops. Two members of station staff died on 13 December 1868 from an explosion of

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ' ...

in a truck of a goods train. On 28 January 1933 an electric train crashed into the back of a steam freight train waiting at the signal box. The driver of the electric train and the guard of the freight train were both seriously injured.

Recent history

In 2021, a tactile map was installed, in collaboration with the

Royal National Institute of Blind People The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. History The RNIB was founded by Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a doctor who had eye ...

, to help blind and partially sighted passengers navigate the station.

Related rail facilities

Locomotive depot and goods yard

Three Bridges Locomotive Depot geograph-2654145-by-Ben-Brooksbank

engine shed 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 shed ...

was opened in July 1848 on a site to the west of the station. This was closed in 1909 to make way for the enlargement of the station and a new depot was established in the fork between the Brighton and Horsham lines in 1911, which remained open until June 1964. The original small goods yard to the south of the station was greatly extended during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was used as a marshalling yard for munitions trains heading for the Continent. Trains from the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway were brought here for onward transmission to Newhaven Harbour. In the early 2000s,

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

built a depot at Three Bridges operated by English Welsh and Scottish Railway to service its Class 220 ''Voyagers''. It closed following CrossCountry withdrawing its

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

and Brighton services in December 2008 and was subsequently demolished and replaced with EMU stabling sidings.

Three Bridges rail operating centre

In 2010

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

selected Three Bridges as its preferred site for a signalling centre for trains operating in the southeast of England, being central to the London, Brighton, and future Thameslink services, and with no major negative planning issues. A site south of Three Bridges station was selected, located in the "fork" between the

and

the centre was located east of a DB Schenker rail depot, and east of depot facilities for the

Thameslink rolling stock programme The British Rail Class 700 '' Desiro City'' is an electric multiple unit passenger train capable of operating on from overhead wires or 750 V DC from third rail. 115 trainsets were built between 2014 and 2018, for use on the Thameslink netw ...

trains, which was under planning development at the same time. The operating centre build was designed as a three-storey building with of floorspace, providing railway operational and administrational and training facilities. Equipment was primarily on the ground floor, with the operation rooms on first and second floors. In December 2011, Network Rail began construction of a rail operating centre at Three Bridges, one of 14 countrywide intended to replace several hundred signalboxes; the Three Bridges centre was built to control rail operations in the Sussex area. The facility was constructed by C. Spencer Ltd, and was expected to employ around 600 people, with a 900-person net job benefit once complete. The facility was officially opened in January 2014, with the last section of London Bridge Area Signalling Centre moving to the Three Bridges site in 2020.

Three Bridges rolling stock depot

In 2009 Network Rail submitted a planning application for a rolling stock depot including a three road shed for trains to be procured under the

; rejection of the plans for a sister depot at

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey. It is an inner-suburban, for the most part residential, area centred north of Charing Cross. It adjoins green spaces Queen's Wood and Alexandra Park to the ...

resulted in modified plans being submitted in 2011, with the Three Bridges depot expanded to a five road shed with additional stabling and facilities. The depot was opened in October 2015.

Current services

The station remains an important junction on the

throughout Southern Railway and British Railways ownership. Train services are now provided by Southern and

train operating companies.

Facilities

Besides a booking hall, the station has refreshment facilities and shops, as well as toilets and accessibility lifts to platforms.

Platform layout

*Platform 1: - From Crawley to London via Redhill - Some fast services in the peaks *Platform 2: - To London via Redhill / Down to Chichester (off-peak) (Up Slow) Some Terminus from Victoria (Down Slow) *Platform 3: - To Horsham/Bognor/Crawley - Occasionally Brighton (Down Slow) *Platform 4: - To Bedford - Most Thameslink and Fast Victoria services (Up Fast) *Platform 5: - To Brighton and/or Eastbourne and/or Littlehampton (Down Fast)

Services

Services at Three Bridges are operated by Southern and

using and EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to * 4 tph to via (2 of these run via Redhill) * 2 tph to * 2 tph to via * 4 tph to * 2 tph to (stopping) * 1 tph to and Portsmouth & Southsea, dividing at Horsham * 1 tph to Bognor Regis and , dividing at Horsham On Sundays, the services to London Victoria and Cambridge reduce to hourly and the service to Peterborough runs hourly but only as far as London Bridge. During the night, the station is served by a half-hourly Thameslink service to Bedford (not calling at London Bridge). This service runs on Sunday-Friday nights with an hourly Southern service to London Victoria on Saturday nights.

References

Sources

External links

{{coord, 51.117, N, 0.161, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Crawley Transport in Crawley Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in West Sussex DfT Category C1 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway David Mocatta railway stations