West Coastway line
Looking eastwards fromFishersgate, April 2007.
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	West Sussex Hampshire South East England
Termini	Brighton Southampton
Stations	39
Service
Type	Suburban rail,Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Southern (over whole) GWR (long haul services from Portsmouth Harbour to Southampton and beyond to Bristol/Cardiff) SWR (west part and parts north of Portsmouth)
Depot(s)	Brighton Littlehampton Fratton Southampton
Rolling stock	Class 158 "Express Sprinter" (Southampton to Portsmouth) Class 159 "South Western Turbo" Class 166 "Networker Turbo" (Southampton to Portsmouth) Class 377 "Electrostar" Class 444 "Desiro" Class 450 "Desiro"
History
Opened	1840
Technical
Line length	62 mi 4 ch (99.86 km)
Number of tracks	2 (up to 4 in areas)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	750VDCthird rail
Operating speed	85 mph (137 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e West Coastway line
Legend
South West Main Line toBournemouth &Weymouth Southampton Central Southampton West End Southampton Tunnel toSouthampton Docks Northam Road (1839–40) St Denys South West Main Line toLondon Waterloo River Itchen Bitterne Woolston Sholing Netley Netley Hospital Hamble Hamble-le-Rice oil terminal Bursledon Crow Park Halt ( 1918–1920 workmen only ) Swanwick Eastleigh–Fareham line toEastleigh Fareham Fareham–Gosport line toFort Brockhurst Portchester M27 Paulsgrove Halt Cosham Portsmouth Harbour 45 mi 36 ch 73.14 km Portsmouth & Southsea 44 mi 50 ch 71.82 km Fratton 43 mi 64 ch 70.49 km Hilsea 41 mi 41 ch 66.81 km Cosham Junction 41 mi 4 ch 66.06 km Portcreek Junction 41 mi 3 ch 66.04 km Farlington Halt Farlington Junction 40 mi 38 ch 65.14 km Bedhampton 38 mi 14 ch 61.44 km Havant 37 mi 41 ch 60.37 km Hayling Island branch line toHayling Island Portsmouth Direct line toWoking Warblington 36 mi 66 ch 59.26 km Emsworth 35 mi 50 ch 57.33 km Southbourne 34 mi 16 ch 55.04 km Nutbourne 33 mi 14 ch 53.39 km Bosham 31 mi 43 ch 50.75 km Fishbourne 30 mi 12 ch 48.52 km Midhurst Railways West Sussex Railway toSelsey Beach Chichester 28 mi 51 ch 46.09 km Drayton (closed 1930) Woodgate (closed 1864) Bognor Regis 25 mi 75 ch 41.74 km Barnham 22 mi 29 ch 35.99 km Yapton (closed 1864) Ford 19 mi 55 ch 31.68 km Arun Bridge overRiver Arun Ford Junction 19 mi 31 ch 31.2 km Littlehampton Junction Arundel Junction 19 mi 1 ch 30.6 km Littlehampton Arun Valley line toHorsham Lyminster (closed 1914) Arundel and Littlehampton Angmering 15 mi 44 ch 25.03 km Goring-by-Sea 13 mi 7 ch 21.06 km Durrington-on-Sea 12 mi 13 ch 19.57 km West Worthing 11 mi 30 ch 18.31 km Worthing 10 mi 46 ch 17.02 km East Worthing 9 mi 55 ch 15.59 km Lancing 8 mi 19 ch 13.26 km Shoreham Airport Halt 6 mi 77 ch 11.21 km Shoreham Viaduct overRiver Adur Steyning Line toChrist's Hospital Shoreham-by-Sea 5 mi 69 ch 9.43 km Kingston-on-Sea (closed 1879) Southwick 4 mi 30 ch 7.04 km Fishersgate 3 mi 47 ch 5.77 km Portslade 2 mi 73 ch 4.69 km Brighton and Dyke Railway toThe Dyke 2 mi 1 ch 3.24 km Dyke Junction Halt (closed 1932) Aldrington 1 mi 74 ch 3.1 km Hove 1 mi 35 ch 2.31 km Hove Junction Cliftonville Spur Holland Road Halt 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove (first station) 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove Tunnel ( 220 yd 201 m ) Cliftonville Tunnel Brighton 0 mi 0 ch 0 km Brighton Main Line toLondon East Coastway line toLewes
Distances measured from Brighton

TheWest Coastway line is a railway line in England linking the conurbations ofBrighton/Hove/Littlehampton andSouthampton/Portsmouth. It has short southward branches toLittlehampton andBognor Regis, which offer direct services to and fromLondon.

From Brighton theEast Coastway line continues toHastings viaLewes,Eastbourne andBexhill, and then toAshford International,Kent via theMarshlink line.

The section east ofPortsmouth waselectrified by theSouthern Railwaybefore the Second World War. The electrification of the tracks further west in the late 1980s enabled electric trains to travel the whole route viaNetley to Southampton or viaBotley toEastleigh. TheLondon and South Western Railway ran the tracks west ofFarlington Junction, north of Portsmouth, by the inland shore ofLangstone Harbour. This section was served and timetabled separately before its electrification, a vestige of having had a differentoriginal railway company.

The West Coastway line runs almost alongside or within a few miles of the south coast ofSussex andHampshire, betweenBrighton andSouthampton.^[1][2][3]

East ofPortsmouth the line waselectrified (using 750VDC third rail) by the Southern Railway before the Second World War in two stages:

1. Brighton to West Worthing in 1933,^[4][5]
2. West Worthing toHavant in 1938 (where it joined up with the electrifiedPortsmouth Direct line), including the Littlehampton and Bognor branches.

Current service patterns

Southern is the main operator of passenger services and stations on the line east ofPortsmouth. Service patterns have varied over the years, but have always included a slow service (calling at most or all stations) fromBrighton toPortsmouth. Regular services run fromLondon Victoria via Gatwick which avoid Brighton by using the tunnel betweenPreston Park and Hove. These services run to Littlehampton (2016); similar services extended to Chichester, Portsmouth and Southampton particularly in the initial decades of open competition between operators, making use of statutory and negotiatedrunning rights. Other services run from London Victoria via Gatwick and theArun Valley line toBognor 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 electricmultiple-units. Many of these trains join/"couple" or divide/"uncouple" during their journey, historically atBarnham, today atHorsham (except on Sundays, when trains still divide at Barnham).

The section west of Portsmouth sees trains from typically three operators. Its stations are managed bySouth Western Railway, who operate regular services from Portsmouth either to Southampton or to London Waterloo (less directly than itsPortsmouth Direct Line, instead via Fareham, Botley, Hedge End and Eastleigh).Great Western Railway operate diesel passenger trains from Portsmouth toBristol Temple Meads andCardiff Central, with occasional services to the West Country orGreat Malvern. Southern operate hourly services: betweenBrighton andSouthampton Central; and betweenLondon Victoria andSouthampton. 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.

In 2024, Southern proposed significant service pattern changes, by diverting all the services from Southampton Central to London Victoria to Portsmouth Harbour, as well as doubling Southampton Central to Brighton services, with an additional stop atWoolston. The lightly-used Littlehampton to Portsmouth & Southsea and Bognor Regis services will be replaced by a new Brighton to Chichester (via Littlehampton) service. The new changes commenced in June 2024.^[6]

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. TheDepartment for Transport withdrew the obligation ofSouth West Trains to run Brighton services — being somewhat orbital aroundLondon — 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 "(south) 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, except a daily Brighton-to-Exeter through (direct) train.^[7] After dieselisation using3H units in 1958, the general service pattern every hour was one semi-fast from Portsmouth to Southampton and Salisbury (some extended to Bristol), one stopping to Southampton Central and one train to Botley and Eastleigh (some extended to Reading and, until 1966, Romsey via Chandler's Ford).

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 theLondon and Brighton Railway which opened 12 May 1840, before the completion of themain line. The extensions of this line toWorthing (opened 24 November 1845), toArundel & Littlehampton (opened 16 March 1846) and toChichester (opened 8 June 1846) were built by theBrighton and Chichester Railway. In July 1846 these two companies merged with others to form theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), which continued the line toHavant (opened 15 March 1847) andPortsmouth (opened 14 June 1847). Part of this section became jointly owned with theLondon and South Western Railway (LSWR), following the opening of the LSWR line fromFareham to Portcreek Junction on 1 October 1848 (connecting to theEastleigh–Fareham line).

TheSouthampton and Netley Railway built a line to connect with the Victoria Military Hospital atNetley, 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 theLittlehampton branch from Ford Junction on 17 August 1863 and theBognor Regis branch from Barnham Junction on 1 June 1864.

• On 23 July 1894 the brake van and two carriages of a train were derailed and overturned at Farlington Halt. The guard was killed and seven passengers injured.^[8]
• On 22 September 1965, anelectric multiple unit collided with a double decker bus on alevel crossing betweenAngmering andGoring-by-Sea stations, due to errors by the crossing keeper. Eight people were injured and three killed.^[9]

• Brighton trains serving the West Coastway leave from platforms 1, 2 and 3 on a curve to leave theBrighton Main Line.
• There wasHolland Road Halt opened 1905 and closed 1956; when closed it was the only station on the West Coastway line to retain timber decking.^[10] This station was sited just west of the Holland Road bridge. Remains of the steps from the street and the concrete supports can occasionally be seen in winter beside the Up (Brighton) line.

Note: To the east of the Holland Road bridge lay the site of a first Hove station, 1840 to 1880, the site was later used as a commercial coal yard^[11]

• Aldrington replaced Dyke Junction Halt in 1932 on an adjacent site. Dyke Junction Halt opened in 1905 to serve theDevil's Dyke single-line branch (3.5 miles or 5.6 kilometres in length) closed 1938
• there is the now closed branch to Kingston Wharf, servingShoreham Harbour
• there was the junction for the line toHorsham, opened 16 September 1861 and closed 7 March 1966. The line followed the valley of theRiver Adur
• there was Bungalow Town Halt opened 1910, later to serveShoreham Airport, closed in 1940 for national security reasons^[12] (Shoreham Airport became anRAF base during WWII).
  • Littlehampton branch
  • This is a 2-mile (3.2 km) branch line opened as a single line in 1863 and doubled in 1887
• Ford, was Ford Junction: at the third node of the triangle
• Barnham was Barnham Junction until 1929 opened 1864 as the junction for
  • Bognor Regis branch
  • This a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) branch line
• Drayton station – closed
• Chichester Original terminus of theBrighton and Chichester Railway on 6 June 1846; present station opened 1847 when the line was extended to Havant. Junction for theWest Sussex Railway opened in 1897, closed 1935; and for the LBSCR branch toMidhurst, opened 1881 and closed to passengers 1935.
• Havant: Junction for the L&SWRPortsmouth Direct line throughPetersfield and also for the LBSCRHayling Island branch line opened 16 July 1867, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length with two intermediate stations servingLangstone andNorth Hayling. The line closed in 1963.
• A triangular junction — for the two routes to Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour. AfterFarlington Junction andPortcreek Junction (between which was the now closedFarlington Halt railway station)Portsmouth Direct line trains use the joint L&SWR/LBSCR metals to Portsmouth. The main West Coastway route travels across the triangle toCosham Junction where the L&SWR section, opened on 2 September 1889, begins:
• Cosham
• Paulsgrove Halt - closed
• Portchester
• Fareham First opened in 1841 as part of theEastleigh–Fareham line. The lines to Portsmouth via Cosham and Southampton, via Netley, opened in 1848 and 1889 respectively (see dates above). There were also junctions forGosport (the original connection from London to the Portsmouth area) and toAlton via theMeon valley – both closed.
• Swanwick
• Bursledon
• Hamble
• Netley Original terminus of theSouthampton and Netley Railway, built to serve the Military Hospital, which had its own short railway and station. The line from here to St Denys was originally single track (later doubled)
• Sholing
• Woolston
• Bitterne on the outskirts of Southampton. There was a passing point when the line was single track.

With the junction atSt Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of theSouth West Main Line

In July 2022, Transport for the South East proposed that an underground line should be built to connect Southampton Central and Netley stations, thus shortening the travel time for services into Southampton Central, and which could reduce to travel time between Southampton and Portsmouth to under 35 minutes.^[13]

• Southern Railway map, including the West Coastway RouteArchived 5 March 2007 at theWayback Machine
• Brighton to Hove cab ride video produced byBritish Rail (on YouTube)

• Rail transport in West Sussex
• Rail transport in Hampshire
• Transport in Brighton and Hove
• Transport in Portsmouth
• Railway lines in South East England
• Standard gauge railways in England

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