Balcombe railway station

For the station in Melbourne, Australia once known as Balcombe, see Mentone railway station.

Balcombe
Location
Place	Balcombe
Local authority	District of Mid Sussex
Grid reference	TQ306301
Operations
Station code	BAB
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.102 million
2005/06	0.110 million
2006/07	0.110 million
2007/08	0.110 million
2008/09	0.105 million
2009/10	0.103 million
2010/11	0.118 million
2011/12	0.122 million
2012/13	0.124 million
2013/14	0.125 million
2014/15	0.129 million
History
Key dates	Opened 12 July 1841 (12 July 1841)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Balcombe from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Balcombe Station in 1961

Balcombe railway station serves the village of Balcombe in West Sussex, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line and Thameslink 17 miles (27 km) north of Brighton. Train services are primarily provided by Thameslink, with a few Southern services during the peaks, and the latter company operates the station, which has a manned ticket office on the southbound platform, whilst a PERTIS ticket machine is also located on the southbound platform.

History

The original station was opened in July 1841 by the London and Brighton Railway, which became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846. The station was resited to its present position in 1848 or 1849.

The station became part of the Southern Railway during the grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is one train per hour to Brighton via Burgess Hill and one train per hour to London Bridge via Gatwick Airport and East Croydon (some peak services run to London Victoria or Bedford). On Sundays all services run to London Victoria rather than London Bridge.

Trains to and from London Bridge and Bedford are operated by Thameslink, while services to and from London Victoria are operated by Southern.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Three Bridges (Occasionally Gatwick Airport or Horley)		Southern Brighton Main Line		Haywards Heath
		Thameslink Thameslink

There is also one service per weekday on the West Coastway Line to Littlehampton (from London) but no return service. On the East Coastway Line, there are two services to London from Eastbourne (one of which runs from Hastings via Eastbourne) but no return service.

References

• Station on navigable O.S. map

Gallery

• 

  View of the main station building and Down (southbound) platform

• 

  Old, now disused toilet block on the Down platform

• 

  The main building, containing ticket office and waiting area

• 

  Waiting shelter with chimney, on Up (northbound) platform

• 

  Unidentified Southern Class 377 EMU passes through non-stop on a northbound service

• 

  View across the station from the road overbridge at the southern end

External links

• Train times and station information for Balcombe railway station from National Rail