Lewes railway station

Lewes railway station serves the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. It has five platforms and is on the East Coastway Line, 49 miles 74 chains (80.3 km) from London Bridge via Redhill. Train services are provided by Southern.

Lewes
General information
Location	Lewes, Lewes England
Grid reference	TQ416098
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	5
Other information
Station code	LWS
Classification	DfT category C2
Key dates
1846	Opened
1857	Resited
1889	Rebuilt
Passengers
2018/19	2.580 million
Interchange	0.505 million
2019/20	2.607 million
Interchange	0.508 million
2020/21	0.767 million
Interchange	0.121 million
2021/22	1.876 million
Interchange	0.297 million
2022/23	2.174 million
Interchange	0.412 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station has a café and there is a taxi office on the main forecourt. There is a small taxi rank outside.

History

 

RCTS Sussex Rail Tour in 1962

The first station in Friars Walk opened on 8 June 1846 was originally built as a terminus on the Brighton line. However, this station became inconvenient after an extension to Hastings opened on 27 June 1846. The new railway met the Brighton line at a junction just west of Lewes Station (i.e. towards Brighton), requiring trains serving Lewes to reverse. The director of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway called the station "the most incomplete and injudicious station ever erected".^[1]

On 2 October 1847, the Keymer Junction to Lewes line opened. New platforms (called Pinwell) were built opposite the terminus, west of the Hastings line branch. On 1 November 1857, a new station was built at the divergence of the Keymer Junction line. The old station closed; the original booking hall with grand classical columns outside survived until the 1960s before it was demolished.^[2] The new building was built in the style of a Swiss chalet.^[3] A new junction for the realigned Wealden Line opened on 1 October 1868. The new alignment went through part of the station goods yard of the original terminus.^[1] Before this change, the Wealden line joined the Keymer line at Hamsey Junction between the north portal of Lewes Tunnel and Cooksbridge Station.^[4]

The second station was rebuilt in order to increase platform capacity and reduce the narrow curvature of the track. It opened on 17 June 1889.^[5] On 1 October 1889 all passenger services were diverted from the original loop line between Lewes and Southerham Junction onto this alignment. The original route was retained for goods only.

On 5 November 1960, severe flooding of the track caused the suspension of all electric services, and replaced by whatever steam locomotives were available. The Borough Surveyor requested that the London-bound platforms at Lewes station should be blown up to allow flood water to escape via the railway track-bed. However, the British Railways district engineer declined to co-operate.^[6] The line to Wivelsfield remained inoperable for some time.^[7]

In the 1960s, the original 1846 terminus building fronting the public street (Friars Walk), was demolished.^[8][9][10] The line to Uckfield closed on 23 February 1969, in order that a relief road in Lewes could be built over the redundant trackbed.^[11]

Layout

 

Forecourt at Lewes Station

The station is located at a junction, where two western branches of the East Coastway line (from London and from Brighton) join to continue eastwards towards Eastbourne. Each of the two branches has its own set of platforms (the junction itself is immediately east of the station). The two sets of platforms together form a "V" shape (keilbahnhof), with a large open area (as well as the main station building) between platforms 2 and 3.

London branch

Platforms 1 and 2 serve the London branch. Both platforms are long enough to accommodate a 12-carriage train.

• Platform 1 is an eastbound side platform used by trains originating in London running towards Eastbourne and Hastings;
• Platform 2 is usually served by westbound services towards London Victoria or London Bridge via Gatwick Airport, although it is also signalled for eastbound departures, meaning it can be used by trains that reverse at the station to run to and from the east.

Brighton branch

Platforms, 3, 4 and 5 are located on the Brighton branch. These platforms are considerably shorter than those on the London side – platforms 3 and 5 are only long enough to accommodate six carriages, while platform 4 can hold seven.

• Platform 3 is an eastbound platform served by through trains from Brighton towards Seaford, Eastbourne and Hastings;
• Platforms 4 and 5 are both signalled bi-directionally, but in normal service they are used by westbound trains towards Brighton; through services usually use platform 4, while those that start and terminate here normally run from platform 5.

Services

All services at Lewes are operated by Southern using Class 377 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[12]

• 2 tph to London Victoria via Gatwick Airport
• 4 tph to Brighton (3 of these call at all stations and 1 runs non-stop from Falmer)
• 2 tph to Seaford
• 2 tph to Eastbourne (1 semi-fast, 1 stopping)
• 2 tph to Ore via Hastings (1 semi-fast, 1 stopping)

Until 2018, the station was served by hourly services through to Ashford International. These services were discontinued as part of the May 2018 timetable changes due to long journey times and insufficient rolling stock (the line to Ashford was at the time served by 2-car DMUs) which caused overcrowding particularly on the section between Brighton and Eastbourne. Since then, services to and from Ashford have only run as far as Eastbourne.^[13]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Plumpton or Cooksbridge		Southern East Coastway Line - London Branch		Polegate
Falmer		Southern East Coastway Line - Brighton Branch		Glynde
		Southern Seaford Branch Line		Southease or Newhaven Town
	Disused railways
Barcombe Line and station closed		London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Lewes and East Grinstead Railway		Terminus
Barcombe Mills Line and station closed		London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Wealden Line

References

Citations

1. Mitchell & Smith 1985, pp. 49–50, Lewes.
2. Mitchell & Smith 1985, Lewes.
3. Marx 1982, p. 22.
4. Mitchell & Smith 1985, p. 49, Lewes.
5. Mitchell & Smith 1985, p. 50, Lewes.
6. Mitchell & Smith 1985, Lewes, Fig. 65.
7. Glover 2001, pp. 142–143.
8. plate 48, Brighton to Eastbourne by Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Middleton Press, 1985, ISBN 0-906520-16-9
9. maps opposite plate 50, Brighton to Eastbourne by Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Middleton Press, 1985, ISBN 0-906520-16-9
10. London, Brighton & South Coast Railway Album, Klaus Marx, Ian Allan, 1982, ISBN 0-7110-1187-7
11. "Uckfield to Lewes rail line: 50 years of hurt". Uckfield News. 23 February 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
12. Table 184, 189, 190, 192 National Rail timetable, May 2023
13. "Plans to axe unpopular two-carriage Eastbourne train service". Eastbourne Herald.

Sources

• Glover, John (2001). Southern Electric. Hersham: Ian Allan. pp. 142–43. ISBN 0-7110-2807-9.
• Marx, Klaus (1982). London, Brighton & South Coast Railway Album. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1187-7.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1985). Brighton to Eastbourne. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-16-9.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lewes railway station.

• Train times and station information for Lewes railway station from National Rail
• Wealden line Campaign

50°52′15″N 0°0′42″E / 50.87083°N 0.01167°E / 50.87083; 0.01167