| West Coastway line | |
| Type: | Suburban rail, Heavy rail |
| System: | National Rail |
| Status: | Operational |
| Locale: | West Sussex Hampshire South East England |
| Start: | Brighton |
| End: | Southampton |
| Stations: | 39 |
| Open: | 1840 |
| Owner: | Network Rail |
| Operator: | 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: | Brighton Littlehampton Fratton Southampton |
| 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" |
| Linelength: | 62miles |
| Tracks: | 2 (up to 4 in areas) |
| Electrification: | 750 V DC third rail |
| Speed: | 850NaN0 maximum |
| Map: | (Click to expand) |
| Map State: | uncollapsed |
The West Coastway line is a railway line in England linking the conurbations of Brighton/Hove/Littlehampton and Southampton/Portsmouth, with 1.3 million people between them. It has short southward branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, which offer direct services to and from London.
From Brighton the East Coastway line continues to Hastings via Lewes, Eastbourne and Bexhill, and then to Ashford International, Kent via the Marshlink line.
The section east of Portsmouth was electrified by the Southern Railway before the Second World War. The electrification of the tracks further west in the late 1980s enabled electric trains to travel the whole route via Netley to Southampton or via Botley to Eastleigh. The London and South Western Railway ran the tracks west of Farlington Junction, north of Portsmouth, by the inland shore of Langstone Harbour. This section was served and timetabled separately before its electrification, a vestige of having had a different original railway company.
The West Coastway line runs almost alongside or within a few miles of the south coast of Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton.[1] [2] [3]
East of Portsmouth the line was electrified (using 750 V DC third rail) by the Southern Railway before the Second World War in two stages:
The section west of Portsmouth sees trains from typically three operators. Its stations are managed by South Western Railway, who operate regular services from Portsmouth either to Southampton or to London Waterloo (less directly than its Portsmouth Direct Line, instead via Fareham, Botley, Hedge End and Eastleigh). Great Western Railway operate diesel passenger trains from Portsmouth to and, with occasional services to the West Country or . Southern operate hourly services: between Brighton and Southampton Central; and between London Victoria and Southampton. 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 at Woolston. 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 are planned for June 2024.[6]
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 using 3H 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 the London and Brighton Railway which opened 12 May 1840, before the completion of the main line. The extensions of this line to Worthing (opened 24 November 1845), to Arundel & Littlehampton (opened 16 March 1846) and to Chichester (opened 8 June 1846) were built by the Brighton and Chichester Railway. In July 1846 these two companies merged with others to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), which continued the line to Havant (opened 15 March 1847) and Portsmouth (opened 14 June 1847). Part of this section became jointly owned with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), following the opening of the LSWR line from Fareham to Portcreek Junction on 1 October 1848 (connecting to the Eastleigh–Fareham line).
The Southampton and Netley Railway built a line to connect with the Victoria Military Hospital at Netley, 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 the Littlehampton branch from Ford Junction on 17 August 1863 and the Bognor Regis branch from Barnham Junction on 1 June 1864.
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]
With the junction at St Denys the West Coastway Line joins the route of the South 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 between Southampton and Portsmouth to under 35 minutes.[13]
