Haywards Heath railway station
Haywards Heath  |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Place | Haywards Heath |
| Local authority | Mid Sussex, West Sussex |
| Operations | |
| Station code | HHE |
| Managed by | Southern |
| Number of platforms | 4 |
| Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries |
|
| Annual rail passenger usage | |
| 2004/05 * | 3.477 million |
| 2005/06 * |  3.411 million |
| 2006/07 * |  3.463 million |
| 2007/08 * | 3.830 million |
| 2008/09 * | 3.882 million |
| 2009/10 * | 3.744 million |
| History | |
| 12 July 1841 | Opened (Terminus) |
| 21 September 1841 | Opened (through) |
| 1883 [1] | Horsted Keynes branch opened |
| 1933 | Electrification and Rebuilt |
| 28 October 1963 [1] | Ardingly branch closed |
| National Rail - UK railway stations | |
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Haywards Heath from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year. | |
Haywards Heath railway station serves Haywards Heath in West Sussex, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line and Thameslink 21 km (13 mi) north of Brighton, and train services are primarily provided by Southern and First Capital Connect. Until December 2008 a small number of CrossCountry services also stopped here.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History
The London and Brighton Railway opened its main line from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway at Norwood as far as Haywards Heath on 12 July 1841, A coach service was provided to take passengers on the remainder of their journey. The remaining line to Brighton followed on 21 September 1841. The original station was designed by the architect David Mocatta and included a central passing line, and an awning over the platform.[3] The station retained its importance as a junction following the construction of the line to Lewes from Keymer 3 miles (4.8 km) to the south. From 1846 the railway became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway.
On 3 September 1883 the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway opened a branch line from Copyhold Junction, just north of the station, to Horsted Keynes railway station on their existing line between those towns.[4] There was an intermediate station at Ardingly.[1] As a result Haywards Heath station was enlarged by the provision of two bay platforms. As soon as the line was opened, the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway merged with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, but until 1912, there was no physical connection between the tracks of the branch line and those of the main line; they ran parallel all the way to Haywards Heath station.[5] Once the connection was made, it provided a relief route for the congested Brighton main line from Croydon to Brighton via Oxted East Grinstead and Haywards Heath. This double-track branch line was closed to passengers on 28 October 1963, but a single-track section remains to serve a freight and aggregates terminal at Ardingly.[1]
Haywards Heath station was the site of the first use of the practice of "slipping" coaches from the rear of express trains, at intermediate junctions, for onward transmission to smaller stations. The earliest recorded example was in February 1858, when coaches for Hastings were slipped from a London-Brighton express.[6] This practice was a regular feature at the station until the electrification of the line during 1932/3. The station and surrounding structures such as bridges were also totally rebuilt at this time. A single signal box, alongside Platform 4 (the westernmost platform face), replaced the former North and South boxes.
[edit] Layout
 |
This article may overuse colour, making it hard to understand for colour blind users. Please remove or fix instances of distracting or hard-to-read colours. See the category page and WP:COLOUR for guidelines. |
The platform layout is:
 National Rail towards Eastbourne, Littlehampton and Ore  |
|
|
Island platform Platform 2 |
|
| National Rail towards Brighton, Ore, Littlehampton and Portsmouth |
|
National Rail towards London Victoria, London Bridge, St Pancras Intl and Bedford  |
|
|
Island platform Platform 4 |
|
| National Rail towards London Victoria, London Bridge, St Pancras Intl and Bedford |
|
Key:
- station marked green means towards this station on Mondays-Fridays ONLY;
- station marked blue means towards this station on Mondays-Saturdays ONLY;
- station marked red means towards this station on Sundays ONLY;
- station unmarked obviously means towards this station every day :)
[edit] Services
The typical service from the station is:
[edit] Northbound
Weekdays and Weekends
- 2tph (trains per hour) to London Victoria
- 4tph to Bedford via London Bridge and St Pancras International
[edit] Southbound
- 4tph to Brighton
- 2tph to Eastbourne, one of which continues to Ore
- 2tph to Littlehampton via Hove and Worthing
[edit] Facilities
- Ticket office (3 windows)
- Quick ticket
- Toilets
- Vending Machines
- Pumpkin Cafe (x2)
- Snack Bar
- Flower Shop
- Sheltered seating around station
- Telephone (x5)
- Car Park
- Taxi Rank
- Taxi Office
- Bus stop served by Countryliner and Metrobus
[edit] Freight Sidings
The freight sidings at Haywards Heath were constructed during the First World War when the railway received a rapid growth in its freight traffic as a result of munitions trains travelling to Newhaven. They were intended to enable passenger trains to overtake slower freight traffic.
[edit] Folly Hill Tunnel
Just south of the station there is a 250 yard (228.6 metre) tunnel through Folly Hill. It was an accident during the construction of this tunnel on 2 January 1841, causing a roof fall and killing three men, which prevented the railway from opening through to Brighton in the July.[7] Until the 1970s this tunnel suffered from an excess of water falling from the ground above, and in the 1840s it had to be lined with galvanised iron sheeting to prevent the water from falling on the third class passengers in open carriages.[8]
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gatwick Airport | Southern Mainline West |
Burgess Hill or Hove |
||
| Gatwick Airport | Southern Mainline East |
Wivelsfield or Plumpton or Lewes |
||
| Balcombe | Southern Brighton Main Line |
Wivelsfield | ||
| Three Bridges or Balcombe |
First Capital Connect Thameslink |
Wivelsfield or Brighton (Burgess Hill on Sundays) |
||
| Gatwick Airport | Southern Gatwick Express Peak Times Only |
Wivelsfield or Burgess Hill |
||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | LB&SCR Southern Railway Southern Region Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes line |
Ardingly | ||
[edit] Former Train Companies
- CrossCountry - Ceased services in December 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Ardingly railway station on Disused-Stations.org.uk - Nick Catford - Accessed 9 September 2007
- ^ "Crosscountry Trains FAQ - Timetable Change". Archived from the original on 2007-12-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20071217223018/http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/AboutCrossCountry/FAQs.aspx#thetimetablechange. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- ^ Turner, John Howard (1977). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 1 Origins and Formation. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-0275-X. p.126-38.
- ^ Turner, John Howard (1979). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 3 Completion and Maturity. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1389-1. pp.23-34.
- ^ Mitchell, Vic and Smith, Keith (1986). Southern Main Lines - Three Bridges to Brighton. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-35-5
- ^ Ellis, C. Hamilton (1970). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway. Ian Allan.
- ^ Gray, Adrian (1978). The London to Brighton Line 1841-1977. Oakwood Press.
- ^ Turner, John Howard (1977). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 1 Origins and Formation. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-0275-X. p.142.
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information for Haywards Heath railway station from National Rail
Coordinates: 51°00′18″N 0°06′18″W / 51.005°N 0.105°W
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
