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.

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.

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!

It's a surprise to find a station serving as a small village as Balcombe, especially on a main…read moreline. However, the lack of good roads to and from the village, and its proximity to London, ensures a healthy flow of commuter traffic, with Balcombe acting as a rail-head for several villages around - it is used by just over 100,000 passengers a year. It's an attractive small station, the east side nestling in a cutting, and surrounded on all sides by mature trees and shrubs, and is very popular at week-ends with walkers exploring the surrounding woodlands. The station opened on 12 July 1841 as an intermediate station on the then London and Brighton Railway, later amalgamated into the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The 1841 census shows that there were 550 railway labourers living in the village at the time - which must have been challenging for the locals! The station has been rationalised over the years, but retains a small building on the down (Brighton) platform, complete with Victorian canopy, ticket office and toilet. The office is only open at peak times (the toilet is also closed when the office is shut). If this is the case, you need to buy a 'permit to travel' from the machine and buy a ticket on board. The up platform (for London) has a small waiting shelter with step-free access from the car park, and there are car parking spaces and a cycle rack on this side of the station. A footbridge provides access between the platforms, and also provides the exit to London Road at the top of the cutting. Note that there is no step-free access to the Brighton platform. An oddity is the extension of the Brighton platform under the small tunnel at the south of the station: this is only used to board and alight from trains, and a sign warns not to enter the tunnel when a through (ie non-stopping) train is approaching which they do, at some speed. The service is fairly sparse: off-peak, Monday to Saturday there is one train an hour in each direction, on the First Capital Connect service from Bedford to Brighton via London Bridge. On Sundays, an hourly service is provided by Southern on the Brighton to London Victoria line. Additional services stop during rush hours in both directions. To the north of the station is Balcombe tunnel, 800 yards long, and to the south the famous Ouse viaduct, the first long railway viaduct in southern Britain. At 1,475 ft (450m) long, faced with Caen stone and with four Italianate pavilions at each end, it is regarded as one of the most attractive in the UK.

Some you win, some you Lewes…read more This is a very pretty little station located in East Sussex with a nice beige brown exterior with some red trim and some nice little attractive stuff on top of the building. It looks like quite the complex from afar and has big wide platforms - several of them in fact - and a gorgeous facade as well. So it's hard not to give this lovely station 5 stars, and it dates back to 1846 as well, which makes it even more interesting, and in the last few years it has been getting more usage - which is great.

The oldest preserved main-line steam railway in the UK is still one of the best…read more The main base is at Sheffield Park station, near the National Trust gardens of the same name. The main locomotive sheds are here, with lots of steam engines to look at, plus a large shop selling railway items, a cafe and restuarant and a small museum display. Of course, a ride behind a steam engine is a must. Frequency depends on the season, but a round trip takes about an hour and a half. There are special evening restaurant trains with fine dining aboard a Pullman car (advance booking required) and 'Thomas the Tank Engine' days for the kids. You can easily spend a whole day here. Winter-time trains are especially evocative as the stations are still lit by gas lamps. The website also lists information for wheel-chair users (a special carriage is available). Once part of the East Grinstead - Lewes line, they are currently rebuilding the link into East Grinstead. If you come by car, go to Sheffield Park station. If not, there is a bus link from the National Rail station at East Grinstead to Kingscote, the current terminus, in summer, which connects with the trains.

What can be said about an evening on the Golden Arrow. I remember, as a child, having a meal on a…read moretrain in the early 50's. Something, I thought, that couldn't be brought back. How wrong I was. I booked a double table for my partners birthday present. Immediately, on arrival, we were guided to the Bessemer Arms by the Station Master. Nice to have a few drinks before boarding the train. Plenty of seating, inside and out, in this renovated station. All details were explained as we sat and drank. The train arrived and we were then able to board. Yes, it took us back decades. The table was beautifully laid out with the bottle of wine I had ordered. Comfy, very comfy, seating. Pre-dinner drinks were ordered from the very well stocked bar. These arrived very promptly. Food service throughout the journey was typically based in the era, full Silver Service. Not many can do this these days but those guys and girls were perfect in their smart uniforms. The food was extremely tasty but, as oldies, in vast quantities so it may have seemed that we didn't like it. Totally untrue, the food was delicious but too much for us. As I said, service was second to none. Very professional but, so friendly too. We loved the whole evening. Unfortunately in Ashdown, a Pullman going back to the 50's, they hadn't quite finished the refurbishment as the table lights did not work but, I am sure, this is an ongoing, and costly, plan for the future. It did not detract from a wonderful evening for which we thank all the volunteers (that mustn't be forgotten) for their work in making it so.

This is a tiny little unmanned station with trains to Eastbourne and London, via Lewes…read more Unfortunately, because of the size of the station there is only one train an hour in each direction, apart from during rush hour, but if you know you will be able to get a particular train, it is a very convenient station. During rush hour times, trains also run to and from London Bridge. There is a small car park, shared with the East Sussex paragliding club, and it is free! Although it is an unmanned station, any problems that occur with trains is piped through the loud speakers, presumably from Eastbourne so you are not just left standing.

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.

Newhaven Town is the larger of this small Channel port's stations, and is a short walk from the…read moretown centre across the swing bridge over the harbour. Opened from Lewes in 1847 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the aim was to turn Newhaven into 'the Liverpool of the south'. Although it became a bustling port, with regular ferry services to Dieppe, it never quite grew as early promotional material suggested. The town eventually had three stations, Town, Harbour and Marine, the largest of which, by far, was Marine, used for passengers transferring to the ferry service to Dieppe. This is now closed and in a very sorry state, and Harbour station - used by foot passengers for the ferry - is just a halt. The station has a small stone building on the London-bound side with a short canopy, although it only has rather mean pedestrian access, owing to work under way on the port area behind. The Seaford platform has a basic bus-type shelter. There is a footbridge, but many choose to cross using the busy level crossing at the Lewes end. (This also provides level access to both platforms). The basic off-peak weekday service is every half hour on the Brighton to Seaford, with a few through London trains in the peaks. Aside from level access, the station has a mornings-only ticket office - and that's about it for facilities.

I hope my review of Angmering isn't Angering you…read more This is not too far from Brighton, about 15 miles away in the countryside, and it's right next to a secondary school so Aletta (not Aletta but I'm in love with Aletta so)... a lot of... students use it to get to their little country houses and whatnot. How nice it must be to be middle class or rich in the suburbs of Sussex. Looking at you, Keane. It's a cute little station in the middle of nowhere with a nice dark brown house with a couple of chimneys on top of it. There's a level crossing right at the station which adds to the beauty for a nice element.

Angmering is a small station situated on the outskirts of Littlehampton, serving the suburb of East…read morePreston and the pretty village of Angmering to the north. It is on the 'West Coastway' line between Brighton and Chichester. The station was opened on 16 March 1846 when the London, Brighton & South Coast railway line was extended from Worthing to Ford Junction, before its extension onwards to Chichester. The present building was built in the 1860s. The station has a traditional but rather plain brick-built building with a generous awning on the eastbound platform (to Brighton/London). Facilities include a staffed ticket office, ticket machine, and a privately-run food outlet selling sandwiches, snacks, confectionery and hot and cold drinks. (NB No toilets). There's a decent sized car-park with two disabled parking bays, and cycle racks behind the building and also on the westbound platform. There's a privately run taxi-office just behind the main station building as well. There is level access to both platforms, via the road level crossing at the west end of the station. Off-peak, it's served by the half-hourly London-Littlehampton service, as well as the hourly Brighton-Portsmouth and Brighton-Southampton services. In the evenings there are also some local Littlehampton to Brighton all-stations services.