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Crawley railway station

Coordinates: 51°06′43″N 0°11′13″W / 51.112°N 0.187°W / 51.112; -0.187
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Crawley
National Rail
Crawley Railway Station
General information
LocationCrawley, Borough of Crawley, West Sussex
England
Grid referenceTQ270363
Managed bySouthern
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeCRW
ClassificationDfT category D
Key dates
14 February 1848Opening of original station
28 July 1968Closure of original station and opening of present station to the east
December 2021Second station original concourse closed
22 November 2022New concourse opened
Passengers
2019/20Decrease 1.698 million
 Interchange Decrease 2,462
2020/21Decrease 0.488 million
 Interchange Decrease 954
2021/22Increase 1.005 million
 Interchange Increase 2,152
2022/23Increase 1.161 million
 Interchange Increase 3,065
2023/24Increase 1.287 million
 Interchange Decrease 2,246
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. It is 30 miles 49 chains (49.3 km) down the line from London Bridge, measured via Redhill.[1] It is operated by Southern. The station is the last stop on the Arun Valley Line before it joins the Brighton Main Line.

History

[edit]
Crawley Station in 2008 showing the original now disused platforms.

The single track branch line of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway between Three Bridges and Horsham was opened on 14 February 1848.[2] Crawley and Faygate were intermediate stations, each with two platforms to enable trains to pass. The line was doubled throughout during 1862 to coincide with the extension of the railway from Horsham to the Arun Valley.

The first Crawley station was situated immediately adjacent to the main High Street, with station buildings on the north side of the railway line.[3]

With the continued development of the New Town during the 1950s and 1960s it soon became clear that the station was too small, and a new station building was opened 28 July 1968 at the current site.[4] The new station was funded by a six-storey commercial development above the new British Rail station. The original station buildings were demolished in August 1968, but the platforms still survive.

A planning application[5] was approved on 16 August 2016 for the demolition and redevelopment of the station buildings to include residential apartments, retail space and multi-storey car parking.

The main concourse and ticket office closed for redevelopment in December 2021. The redevelopment of the main concourse and ticket office was completed in November 2022 and the new concourse opened to the public on 22nd November 2022. The new concourse used empty space from sections of the lower floors of the abandoned office block, however the rest of the former office block remains derelict.[6]

In 2020, an accessible footbridge with lifts was installed. It was due to open by autumn 2020.[7][needs update]

Facilities

[edit]
  • Concourse
  • Ticket office (×2)
  • Quick Ticket
  • Vending machine
  • Waiting room (×2)
  • Toilets
  • Car park
  • Bicycle storage
  • Ticket barriers

Services

[edit]

Services at Crawley are operated by Southern and Thameslink using Class 377 and 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[8]

On Sundays, there is an hourly Southern service between London Victoria and Bognor Regis and Portsmouth Harbour, which divides at Barnham (instead of Horsham), and an hourly Thameslink service between Horsham and Bedford (instead of Peterborough).

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Thameslink
Southern
Limited service

Signal box

[edit]
Crawley Signal Box

The original signal box, dating from 1877, survives. It is a tall box with a timber superstructure on a brick base and was built by the firm of Saxby and Farmer.[9] It was made redundant in 1978 when the railway level crossing gates were removed. It is a Grade II listed building[10] and has recently[when?] been partially restored.

The former goods yard to the east of the old Crawley Station was closed in the 1960s and demolished to make way for the new station.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 19B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.
  2. ^ *Howard Turner, Charles (1977). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway. 1 Origins and Formation (1st ed.). London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-0275-9. 232-4.
  3. ^ Bastable, Roger (1999). No.1 Crawley High Street in Photographs. Crawley: Roger Bastable Publications. pp. 54–57.
  4. ^ Body, Geoffrey (1989). PSL field guide to the railways of Southern Region. Wellinborough: Patrick stephens Ltd. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-85260-297-0.
  5. ^ "Planning Application - CR/2016/0294/OUT".
  6. ^ "IN PICTURES: The newly refurbished Crawley Station opens- here's 10 pictures of the different stages of the refurbishment". Sussex Express.
  7. ^ Holden, Michael (13 July 2020). "Major upgrade of Crawley reaches milestone in £5.8m project". RailAdvent. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  8. ^ Table 183, 185, 186 National Rail timetable, May 2020
  9. ^ *Minnis, John (2012). Railway Signal Boxes: a Review (PDF) (1st ed.). London: Ebglish Heritage. ISSN 2046-9799. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. 9.
  10. ^ "Railway Signal Box, Crawley, West Sussex".
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51°06′43″N 0°11′13″W / 51.112°N 0.187°W / 51.112; -0.187