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.

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.

A big shout-out to the lovely station attendant at Shoreham-by-Sea who volunteered to help me with…read moremy luggage and make sure that there was someone at Clapham Junction to take me to my connecting train. It made an unfamiliar journey on a very hot day so much easier and less stressful! Lovely little station and stellar staff.

Shoreham-by-Sea is an attractive, small station, serving the historic Sussex port and resort of the…read moresame name, on the east side of the River Adur. It's a busy little station, with over a million passengers a year. Opened in 1840 as the terminus of the first railway line into Brighton, it was linked to London in 1841 when the Brighton to London main line was completed. At that stage, it became most accessible cross-Channel port for services to France, although Newhaven later assumed this role. The line along the coast was extended to Worthing in 1845, and to Portsmouth in 1847. A branch line was opened in 1861 northwards via Steyning to the Horsham-Littlehampton line, but this closed to passengers in 1966. The station today retains its attractive 1840s buildings, decked out in Southern's cream-and mint green colours, with deep traditional awnings. Facilities include a tick-office and waiting room, and toilets (though these are not always open, especially at evenings and weekends). It's one of the busiest stations on the Brighton-Portsmouth line, with a basic week-day service of 4 trains an hour to Brighton, two per hour via Hove direct to London Victoria, and in the other direction three to Littlehampton, and one each to West Worthing, Portsmouth and Southampton. There are also less frequent services to Bristol and Basingstoke. All trains stop there. A practical tip: the barriers at the level crossing close several minutes before trains arrive, in which case you'll need to go via the subway, which takes a minute or so longer!

Not to be confused with Hermann Goring By Sea, which is a town full of fascists, I suppose. Might…read morebe at home in America then? This is one of five stations in Worthing, and it's one of the tiny ones, with a the tiny little brown building on the platform with a blue overhang. It's cute and doesn't have too many people manning it day or night, and it's just a cute little place with a cute little bridge over it, and not much going on.

A small station serving the seaside town of Goring-by-Sea, between Worthing and Littlehampton on…read morethe West Coastway line. It is used by just under 0.5m passengers a year. 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 and Littlehampton. The main station building looks original, although the canopy has been renewed. Facilities include a part-time ticket office, cycle storage (part sheltered), a small car park and a platform shelter on platform 2 (westbound). There are neither toilets nor a taxi rank. There is level access to both platforms, via the road level crossing at the west end of the station. Train services are operated mostly by Southern (http://www.southernrailway.com) . Off-peak, it's served by the half-hourly London-Littlehampton service, as well as the hourly services to Southampton (daytime) or Portsmouth (late afternoon/evening) and Brighton. In the evenings there are also some local Littlehampton to Brighton all-stations services.

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.

I hope this review will be able to Brighton your day a little bit…read more Brighton understandably has a massive railway station that dates back to 1840, and it's been increased many times in terms of volume and capacity, partly because 17 million passengers a year makes Brighton number 7 on the list of the most busy stations in the country - not including the many many busy ones in London itself. It's huge and has a big old Victorian roof that will remind you of a London Station. It's one of only 70 grade two listed buildings, partly because people absolutely love it. It's a massive modern hub, but also part of History. It's hard not to love the station and I really do. It's also the southern terminus of many national trains, although trains don't really stop here without having to then turn back on themselves, which is interesting. It's been made to look mostly white and blue - kind of like the Pavilion - so it does have a little local Seaside feel, and The Concourse has been completely redesigned so now it looks totally modern, and honestly you would think you were in London sometimes. The blue motif pushes it over the edge, and it's easily five stars - in fact if I could give six stars the station would get six.

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.

If you Havant been to Havant then maybe it's time to come. So to speak…read more This is a little and wide station with a track running right through the middle so trains don't have to stop if they don't want to, and it has overhanging stuff on both sides of the platform, and it mainly serves as a changing point if you want to get to Portsmouth or Southampton and aren't on a train to one of those places. So it's a cute little station and it does a good job, but it feels pretty secluded and separated because of how wide the tracks are between the two tiny platforms.