Just your average train station. Nice long and wide platforms with two waiting rooms (which are…read moreheated!) Good barrier system, although I was sad when the old signal box was removed. Great direct links to London, Brighton, Eastbourne and many more. Staff are nice, there are three (I think) ticket buying machines and two kiosks inside the station. Information packs readily available, you can buy Railcards from here too. I like the welcoming feeling of this station, which also has a night gate for late exits when the barriers are off. I'd recommend this to families, commuters and just about anyone due to the wide platforms and nice service.

Polegate station serves the town of the same name on the northern edge of the Eastbourne…read moreconurbation, and is served by trains on the West Coastway line. It handles around 0.9m passengers a year. The first station on the site opened in 1846 on the Lewes to St Leonards railway line. It became the junction for Eastbourne and for the line northwards to Hailsham in 1849, with the Hailsham line being extended northwards to Eridge on the Uckfield-Groombridge Junction line in 1880. In 1881, to avoid Eastbourne-Hailsham trains having to reverse, a new station was opened further east. The Hailsham line closed in 1968, and the short direct line to Hastings has also closed, necessitating the reversal of all eastbound trains at Eastbourne. In 1986, the 1881 station was closed (it is now a restaurant) and a replacement opened on the site of the original 1846 station, on Polegate High street, and this is the station in use today. It has two platforms, with the main buildings on the north, Eastbourne-bound line. Facilities include a car park, ticket office, waiting rooms or shelters, ticket machines, and cycle storage, but no toilets. There is step-free access both to the ticket office and via short steep ramps to each platform. Between the platforms, there is a footbridge: level access is via the High Street level crossing (allow 5 minutes). Services are provided by Southern; there are two trains an hour to each of Brighton and London Victoria, both via Lewes; and four eastbound to Eastbourne, two of which continue to Hastings and Ore, and one to Ashford.

Haywards Heath is one of the principal stations on the main line between London and Brighton,…read moreserving the commuter town of the same name which has grown up around it. It's not an architectural gem, but it's functional and has a good range of train services. The station opened in July 1841 as the temporary southern terminus on the London to Brighton Railway, and became a through station when the line to Brighton opened in its entirety in September of that year. In 1847 a line was opened from Wivelsfield, just south of Haywards Heath, to Lewes, providing direct lines to Newhaven and Hastings, and 1864 another line opened, to the north, towards Horsted Keynes on the Lewes to East Grinstead line. The line to Horsted Keynes closed in 1963. The station was rebuilt with two long, spacious island platforms in 1933, when the Brighton line was electrified. The street-level buildings are in an unremarkable version of the Modernist style, of brick with concrete canopies. The platforms level buildings are similarly functional and have deep awnings. Since electrification the station has become an important station for dividing trains heading respectively on the lines east towards Lewes and west to Hove and the 'West Coastway' line (avoiding Brighton) and for the same trains joining when heading north. Indeed, it is now the busiest station for this practice in the UK. The station has a regular off-peak service each hour as follows: Northbound Bedford via London Bridge and St Pancras 4 per hour London Victoria 2 per hour Watford Junction - hourly Southbound Brighton 5 trains per hour Littlehampton via Hove and Worthing 2 per hour Eastbourne 2 per hour (one extended to Hastings and Ore) Note: the half-hourly fast Victoria-Brighton trains do not stop here in the off-peak. In the peak hours all Brighton trains call here, providing an intensive service. All northbound trains stop at Gatwick Airport. The station is staffed 24 hours a day, and has a ticket office, waiting rooms, toilets and a large buffet, and step free access is available across the whole of the station (via lifts). There is also storage for over 60 bicycles and a 630-space car park. A limited number of local buses call at the station: see http://www.compass-travel.co.uk .

Whilst I may be living in Haywards Heath, I spend much of my time in Brighton for study,…read moresocialising and shopping. Hence, I am a frequent user of the station. It's one of the main connectors of the south, so is a featured stop for fast services as well as the stop at every station trains. This makes it handy for getting to Gatwick, Brighton and London and you end up waiting less time for a train than at other stations in the area. I think that this is a reason why Haywards heath has become such a popular commuting town and the large station car park attests to this claim! Being a busier station, you also find coffee/snack bars and waiting rooms that are actually open. Now whilst not a fault of the station I do find that a higher percentage of trains get delayed than I would like, so these waiting features are really appreciated. The station staff are helpful for any traveling inquiries or suggestions of cheaper way to get from a to b (sadly, I never seem to qualify for such savings). There are also 3 self service ticket machines if you want to save some time or are cutting your arrival a bit fine before your train departs. There is also a covered area to store bicycles if you are feeling like a healthy commute. All in all, you could do far worse if you have to kill 15-20 minutes waiting for a train than Haywards Heath!

Not to be confused with Farmer Station, which is a bunch of country bumpkins…read more Falmer is a lovely little station in East Sussex that seems in the middle of nowhere, and has what looks like a big house with big chimney sticking out of it, which is pretty gorgeous. It is basically the stadium for the Brighton soccer team (football rather - Brighton And Hove Albion who just got an undeserved point against us thanks to corrupt CIty-sponsored refs using VAR to rig things), which is weird because it's such a little station and yet it serves the massive stadium that is literally overshadowing it, if you look from a certain angle. The stadium is enormous and dwarfs the station, which on a match day will get masses of traffic, and the rest of the time it's just pretty dead. So you want to be a farmer? Here's a couple of acres (kicks you in the testicles).

Falmer Station is a traditional English railway station one would find out of town, or perhaps in a…read moresmall town or village, this, of course, serves the Falmer area of Brighton, which also happens to be right next to The Falmer Stadium, known as The Amex for sponsorship reasons which is home to Brighton and Hove Albion FC. On a match-day, fans can travel from here into Brighton centre for free as long as they have a match-ticket, which is an incredible and cool gesture from the club to arrange, and they even include away fans, I was for sure glad of it as a Manchester City supporter. The inclusion of this station in such a key location serving the stadium built in 2011, makes it a really easy stadium to get to and possibly in line with the likes of the Etihad Stadium and Wembley in a way, which both have stations either built in to the stadium or just a stone's throw away. The trains aren't regular serving here on any other day, which is a flaw, but the main flow of people using the station would be on a match-day heading to a game when they run extra trains every 10 minutes in both directions to and from Brighton (direct service) anyway. It is located on the East Coastway line, the main cities served on that line being Eastbourne and of course Brighton. A regular service on a non-match-day, or if you don't catch a special direct train can take anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes. On a match-day the queuing system after the game is handled incredibly well and deserved credit, I didn't have to wait too long and there were so many staff on hand to help and answer any questions if needed, to the point I'd say it was probably better than the Metrolink station serving the Etihad Campus in that regard. No facilities at the station, however, it is step-free, so if you were planning to get a drink before heading back into Brighton from here, you're out of luck. A great station on a match-day, if allowing plenty of time before the match, and coming back not too late after, but pretty much below average at any other time, other than having a perfect location for the football stadium (Again not as good for away fans, who are located at the other end of the ground) 3*

Not much here really. However this is the station needed after getting off the ferry. Easy to get…read morein and out of and the staff do check tickets on the train so don't be cheeky!

Newhaven is a quaint, old train station located at the port area of New Haven. Although the…read moreNewhaven Harbour station is closer to the port proper, this station is very convenient to those passengers needing access to the DFDS ferry port office at New Haven. Served by Southern, the station has two platforms, a ticket machine, ticket office, and a free to use toilet. The mid 1800's station serves over 300k passengers each year and is served by the Seaford Branch Line of Southern's East Coastway Line. If you are arriving by boat from Dieppe, France, this makes it very easy to hop over to Brighton in no time. During off-peak times, there are two trains heading westward to Brighton. There is also a morning train that connects to London Victoria Station. The ticket counter staff are very friendly, and the inside waiting room has three quite comfortable leather couches. Overall the station is a nice place to lounge in while waiting on your train and is a significant foil to the bare bones bus stop and ferry terminal located nearby.

Southwick is a small suburban station on the West Coastway Line between Portslade and…read moreShoreham-by-Sea. It was opened in 1840 on the original line between Brighton and Shoreham, but of the original station, only the walls and platform canopies survive: the ticket office is housed in a small modern brick bulding just by the entrance. Facilities are minimal: there are no toilets, just sheltered seating on either platform, although thanks to the provision of ramps they are both accessible by step-free access. There is a ticket machine for when the ticket office is closed. There is also a small cycle rack, and a set-down area for cars, but no parking. Off-peak, Southwick is served by the half-hourly all stations service between Brighton and West Worthing, and the hourly Semi-fast services from Brighton to Portsmouth and Southampton respectively, giving 4 trains per hour. All trains go to Brighton in the other direction (4 per hour).

Pevensey & Westham station is located on the line between Eastbourne and Hastings, and serves the…read moretwo villages in its name. The line opened in 1846 as part of the extension from Lewes to St Leonard's later extended to Hastings. The station building on the north side is in the traditional style, although somewhat modernised. The train service is provided by Southern Trains, and comprises an (weekday off-peak) hourly service to London via Eastbourne and Lewes, and an hourly Brighton to Ore service, together providing a half-hourly service from Hastings to Eastbourne. The station is the main railhead for Pevensey Castle. The station has a small car park (charge) and a ticket office and waiting room (open limited hours), ticket machines, and step-free access to both platforms (via road level crossing).

This station is a great place to change over if you are looking for fast rail services to London,…read moreGatwick Airport and the south coast. Be careful though as there are usually many delays for trains going through this station and the staff are not very attentive when it comes to informing you of a rail replacement bus services. They also have toilets and a small waiting room which is heated. Great for those winter months.

Frustrating station to use, in this case the train I was on got cancelled and then we had to wait…read morehere, there are not nearly enough seats. There needs to be better announcements about non-stopping trains too as there were a couple of people (too close to the edge of the platform) who were in danger. Possibly would also help to tell people what to do, rather than expect them to find an alternative route on their own.

Not to be confused with HOV which is Jay Z for some bizarre reason, or Hoover, which is basically…read morewhat they call me when I'm pleasuring men. This is a little station that is the polar opposite of Brighton, because it has just a little dark red brick building in front with a nice little overhang, and it does look pretty, but it's much smaller than Brighton, and sort of like a miniature version. And although it does have a nice little look to it, it is also very different from the main station, including its futuristic-looking roof and whatnot. It's right in the middle of the neighbourhood, so you'll be almost in someone's backyard when you stop here. It's only 50 miles away from London, and it's a nice station to come to, and has been since 1840 when it opened in the same year as the Brighton station did.

Hove's railway station is the smaller and quieter counterpart of that in Brighton, but still has a…read moreregular and reasonably frequent train service to London (direct), to Brighton and along the Sussex coast to Southampton, Eastbourne, Portsmouth and (less frequently) Bristol and South Wales. It's a busy commuter station in its own right, used by over 2 million passengers a year. Opened in 1865, the original station on the site was named West Brighton and Cliftonville. This building still survives, adjacent to the present station: painted in Southern's colours of white and mint green, it was designed in a pleasant, almost domestic, Victorian villa style. The forecourt is now used by a car-washing business. In 1893 a new and larger station building was provided slightly to the West, and this more utilitarian red-brick affair is the main station today. This was called 'Hove and West Brighton' until 1895, and then just 'Hove'. It's main feature is a generous porte-cochere, which is great when it is raining! It also shelters a florist stall Monday to Friday. The station has a small buffet on the London/Brighton platform, a newsagents in the concourse, and a small ticket office. There's only usually a single ticket window open, so if your journey is starting here, get there with a few extra minutes to spare. The three platforms are long and have generous canopies, and while you are waiting you can look across the sidings to the old 'Dubarry' soap and perfume factory - an attractive art nouveau building, now used as offices. I sometimes use the services to and from Hove rather than Brighton, as it is almost as convenient for me and, while it has a less frequent service, the trains tend to be a little less packed. As well as a taxi rank outside, and buses on the frequent 7 route (Hove-Brighton Marina) stop here too. The bus will take you to Hove's main shopping area (or it's a 10 minute walk), but is nowhere near the sea!