West Coastway line


The West Coastway line is a railway line in England following closely the south coast of Sussex and Hampshire, between the cities of Brighton and Southampton. It has short southward branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. Some trains using part of the route operate as direct continuations of passenger services to/from London, particularly those to the branch stations mentioned.
From Brighton the East Coastway line continues to Ashford International, Kent via Lewes, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings and Ore.
Its bulk, east of the city of Portsmouth, was electrified by the Southern Railway before the Second World War. Stations and track further west are since the late 1980s considered additions, enabling through-trains and electrified trains to travel the whole route and to the north via Eastleigh or via Botley stations – between the 1930s and 1980s, passenger trains with direct current traction could not serve the entire West Coastway Line. The London and South Western Railway ran the tracks west of Farlington Junction which lies north of Portsmouth by the inland shore of Langstone Harbour. This section was served and timetabled separately before its electrification, a vestige of having had a different original railway company.

Definition and electrification

The West Coastway line runs almost alongside or within a few kilometers of the south coast of Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton.
East of Portsmouth the line was electrified by the Southern Railway before the Second World War in two stages:
  1. Brighton to West Worthing in 1933,
  2. West Worthing to Havant in 1938, including the Littlehampton and Bognor branches.

    Services

;Current service patterns
Southern is the main operator of passenger services and stations on the line east of Portsmouth. Service patterns have varied over the years, but have always included a slow service from Brighton to Portsmouth. Regular services run from London Victoria via Gatwick which avoid Brighton by using the tunnel between Preston Park and Hove. These services run to Littlehampton ; similar services extended to Chichester, Portsmouth and Southampton particularly in the initial decades of open competition between operators, making use of statutory and negotiated running rights. Other services run from London Victoria via Gatwick and the Arun Valley line to Bognor Regis or along more of the West Coastway line, between Ford and nearby Chichester, to Portsmouth or Southampton. All of the Southern services are operated by electric multiple-units. Many of these trains join/"couple" or divide/"uncouple" during their journey, historically at Barnham Junction, today at Horsham.
The section west of Portsmouth sees trains from typically three operators. Its stations are managed by South Western Railway, who operate regular services from Portsmouth either to Southampton or to London Waterloo. Great Western Railway operate diesel passenger trains from Portsmouth to and, with occasional services to the West Country or. Southern operate hourly services: between Brighton and Southampton Central; and between London Victoria and Southampton. The Southampton to London Victoria trains introduced at electrification created many direct routes, from Southampton, Swanwick, Fareham and Cosham to the West Sussex coast and particularly to Gatwick Airport.
;Historic service patterns
Beyond the line and its main links to London, before late 2007 trains ran from Reading or Basingstoke to Portsmouth or Brighton; Basingstoke to Portsmouth being current. The Department for Transport scrapped the duty of South West Trains to run Brighton services — being somewhat orbital around London — which left free train paths which were filled by extra Southern trains mainly bound to or from London.
Prior to the 1980s electrification of the " Hampshire lines", including the part of this line west of Farlington, they were operated as a separate entity terminating at Portsmouth - few trains traversed the Cosham to Farlington triangle which lies north of Portsmouth and Langstone Harbours, excepting a daily Brighton–to-Exeter through train. After dieselisation using 3H units in 1958, the general service pattern every hour was one semi-fast from Portsmouth to Southampton and Salisbury, one stopping to Southampton Central and one train to Botley and Eastleigh.

History

The lines now operated under the banner "West Coastway" have a complex history and were built in stages by five different companies between 1840 and 1889.
The line from Brighton to Shoreham was a branch of the London and Brighton Railway which opened 12 May 1840, before the completion of the main line. The extensions of this line to Worthing, to Arundel & Littlehampton and to Chichester were built by the Brighton and Chichester Railway. In July 1846 these two companies merged with others to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, which continued the line to Havant and Portsmouth. Part of this section became jointly owned with the London and South Western Railway, following the opening of the LSWR line from Fareham to Portcreek Junction on 1 October 1848.
The Southampton and Netley Railway built a line to connect with the Victoria Military Hospital at Netley, which opened 5 March 1866 and was operated by the LSWR. The final connecting link from Netley to Fareham was opened by the LSWR on 2 September 1889.
In the meanwhile the LBSCR opened the Littlehampton branch from Ford Junction on 17 August 1863 and the Bognor Regis branch from Barnham Junction on 1 June 1864.

Accidents and incidents

With the junction at St Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of the South Western main line