Balcombe railway station

Balcombe
Location	Balcombe, District of Mid Sussex England
Grid reference	TQ306301
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BAB
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	12 July 1841
Passengers
2016/17	0.128 million
2017/18	0.132 million
2018/19	0.152 million
2019/20	0.180 million
2020/21	49,106
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Balcombe Station in 1961

Balcombe railway station is on the Brighton Main Line in England, serving the village of Balcombe, West Sussex. It is 33 miles 64 chains (54.4 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill and is situated between Three Bridges and Haywards Heath. It is managed by Southern.

Trains calling at Balcombe are primarily operated by Thameslink, with some Southern services during the peaks.

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.^[1]

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[]

A vector map of off-peak Thameslink services as of May 2020 (including the future extension to Maidstone East)

Off-peak, all services at Balcombe are operated by Thameslink using Class 700 EMUs.

As of May 2020, the typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[2]

• 2 tph to Cambridge via London Bridge
• 2 tph to Brighton

Additional Thameslink and Southern services to London Victoria, Bedford and Littlehampton call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Three Bridges		Thameslink Brighton Main Line		Haywards Heath
		Southern Brighton Main Line Peak Hours Only

References[]

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Station on navigable O.S. map

External links[]

Coordinates: 51°03′22″N 0°08′15″W / 51.05611°N 0.13750°W / 51.05611; -0.13750

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