Littlehaven railway station serves the areas of Littlehaven, Holbrook and

Roffey 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 ...

in the northeast of the town of

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 ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, England. It is 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 t ...

, down the line from , measured via Redhill.

History

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 ...

opened the first part of the line in 1848. However, the stations at Littlehaven, Roffey Road Halt and nearby Ifield were not opened until 1907; Littlehaven opened as Rusper Road Halt and subsequently changed to Littlehaven Crossing Halt and then Littlehaven Halt all within the first year of service. Similarly, Ifield was initially known as ''Lyons Crossing Halt''. Roffey Road Halt closed in 1937. The station was completely rebuilt with minimal facilities after traffic decreased. In 2013, work began to extend the platforms to handle 8 carriages (up from 4), which will reduce delays caused by longer trains blocking the road while stopped. In 2021, platform 2 was extended to handle 12 carriages, to allow passengers to embark and disembark from the whole train without walking down the train, and to avoid trains blocking the road crossing.

Level crossing

There is a

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 or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

at the eastern (London) end of the platforms, where the line crosses Rusper Road. The crossing gates were considered for replacement with modern barriers in the early 1990s but as there was a history of late passengers running over the crossing to catch their train it was dismissed. Therefore, the adjacent signal box was staffed 24 hours a day. In October 2012 the level crossing was rebuilt and automatic barriers installed to replace the old fashioned gates. This meant that the crossing operator's job was now redundant, with CCTV used to control the crossing from the Three Bridges signal centre. This upgrade was finally made necessary due to a number of incidents of people driving through the wooden gates when closed, resulting in expensive replacement gates having to be constructed.

Facilities

Facilities include disabled access to both platforms via side ramps from the level crossing, and a ticket office on the Horsham-bound platform. Its opening hours are 0640–1334 Monday to Saturday only. In early 2022, Govia Thameslink Railway intend to close the current ticket office permanently. Ticket vending machines are located on both platforms for customers to purchase tickets. Their sales information highlighted that 96% of pre Covid ticket sales at Littlehaven were purchased via the ticket vending machines.

Services

Off-peak, all services at Littlehaven are operated by

Thameslink Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...

using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to via * 2 tph to The station is also served by a limited number of Southern services to , , Portsmouth Harbour and London Bridge in the peak hours. On Sundays, the service is reduced to hourly in each direction and northbound services run to and from instead of Peterborough.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Redhill=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y Horsham District Railway stations in West Sussex Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1907 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway