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*

This station is inevitable. You take the train from London to Brighton and end up here. It's not…read morethe greatest station but it's a necessity. The surrounding areas of this station aren't they great either. Occasionally you're welcomed by some druggies sitting outside on the benches. An upgrade is overdue but alas.

The UK National Railway system is a cheap, fast, efficient way to travel the UK. Forward facing and…read morequad stalls, comfortable seats, full bathrooms and wifi! Covers all of the UK and regional airports. We took the Gatwick express from London (Earls Court transfer @ Victoria ) landing in Brighton Beach area in 1hr. Wonderful location.

This is where they filmed the movie Aldrington The President's Men…read more The main station of Hove is pretty nice, but this one is in the middle of nowhere in a suburb of Hove which is only one mile from Brighton, and that means it still feels a little bit remote and somehow both suburban and like the countryside at the same time. So nobody really works here most of the time and it feels a little secluded and remote. It has a little station platform house that really looks more like a bus. LOL.

Aldrington station is a small unstaffed halt half a mile west of Hove railway station (as the crow…read moreflies - it's closer to a mile on foot). That there's a station here at all is something of a surprise: it was opened in 1905 as 'Dyke Junction Halt', at the point where the short-lived branch line up to Devil's Dyke left the Brighton-Worthing main line. This branch was opened in 1887 to enable day-trippers to reach the local beauty spot, and survived until January 1939. It was intended to serve the growing suburbs of Hove, a function it still performs today. The original halt had short wooden platforms, which were replaced by the present concrete ones in the 1930s. It was renamed 'Aldrington Halt' in 1932. Even as halts go, it's pretty basic: two short platforms, the smallest of concrete bus-style shelters, and no staff. There's a small 'permit to travel' machine and a train indicator, CCTV and some noticeboards. And that's your lot. It can get pretty bleak in winter. To be fair, it has long approach ramps, from Aldrington Avenue and Amherst Crescent on the north side, and the corner of Mortimer Road and Tamworth Road on the south: a short pedestrian tunnel connects the two and also provides the only interchange between the platforms - not that there's any reason to change here. But it does mean there's step-free access to both platforms. The service is appropriately basic: from Monday to Saturday it is served by the half-hour Brighton to West Worthing all-stations stopping service. Somewhat remarkably, the hourly Sunday services from Brighton to Littlehampton and Portsmouth Harbour also stop here, providing a half hourly service. It is used by just over 100,000 passengers a year - mostly commuters and school-children. NB Access to both platforms via step-free subway and ramps. Platforms are only 2 metres wide: mobility scooter users may be unable to use platform to train ramps due to limited clearance.

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!

There is a lot to like about this station, especially since it is heritage listed (no doubt due to…read morethe blue plaque being plastered to the side). Anyway, it is actually a pretty nice looking station, and does have quite a lot of charm. Sure, the trains may not be hugely frequent, but honestly, they are a lot more frequent that what you would get in Australia. The other thing is that this station wasn't staffed, which was also a bit of a shame.

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.

Like, not only is this a pretty awesome station, but it has tunnels to either side of it, and the…read moretrain basically comes out just to stop at this station. Basically it is one of those suburban stations of Hastings, and it isn't a particularly long walk their either. Honestly, I really liked the station, the building was really impressive, and I'm glad I jumped off the train here.

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!