Preston Park railway station

Preston Park
Preston Park
	Preston Park in 2006
Location	Preston Village, City of Brighton and Hove; England
Grid reference	TQ299067
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	PRP
Classification	DfT category D
Key dates
1 November 1869	Opened (Preston)
1 July 1879	Renamed (Preston Park)
Passengers
2015/16	0.568 million
2016/17	0.527 million
2017/18	0.504 million
2018/19	0.545 million
2019/20	0.673 million
Notes
	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Preston Park railway station is on the Brighton Main Line in England, serving Preston Village and the northern suburban areas of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. It is 49 miles 21 chains (79.3 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill and is situated between Hassocks and Brighton.

RCTS railtour in 1962.

The station is managed by Southern, which is one of two companies that serve the station, alongside Thameslink. Between 2008 and 2018, Gatwick Express also served Preston Park with a limited number of services at peak times only; these services were withdrawn as part of the May 2018 timetable change.

There are also two spur tracks which run from Preston Park through a tunnel to Hove.

History

The London Brighton and South Coast Railway opened a new station named Preston, on 1 November 1869 to serve the growing parish of Preston, then north of the Brighton boundary. The station was enlarged and remodelled to its present design in 1879 during the construction of the Cliftonville Curve spur line from the main line to Hove and the West Sussex coast line.[1] The station was then renamed Preston Park although the nearby Preston Park did not exist until 1883.

In 1881 the railway murderer Percy Lefroy Mapleton alighted at the station after having killed Isaac Frederick Gold and dumped his body in Balcombe tunnel.

Facilities

The station has a pair of island platforms, linked by a subway; only three platform faces are now in operation. The three tracks through the station reduce to two before traversing Patcham Tunnel, almost two miles (3.2 km) further north.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club's former home, Withdean Stadium is located a short walk from the station, and for this reason, during its tenancy of the stadium, the club offered free travel vouchers with its match tickets — allowing fans to travel from Brighton to Preston Park without there being an apparent surcharge of the train fare.

Services

Trains at Preston Park are operated by Thameslink and Southern. The typical off-peak service from this station is:[2]

2 tph to Bedford via London Bridge (Thameslink)
2 tph to Brighton (Thameslink)
2 tph to London Victoria (Southern)
2 tph to Littlehampton (Southern)

Additional Thameslink services to Cambridge and Littlehampton call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hassocks		Thameslink Brighton Main Line		Brighton
Hassocks		Southern West Coastway Line		Hove

References

Turner, John Howard (1979). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 3 Completion and Maturity. Batsford. pp. 105–7. ISBN 0-7134-1389-1.
"Gatwick Airport Station Upgrade". Southern, May 2020.

External links

Train times and station information for Preston Park railway station from National Rail

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[1] Turner, John Howard (1979). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 3 Completion and Maturity. Batsford. pp. 105–7. ISBN 0-7134-1389-1.

[2] "Gatwick Airport Station Upgrade". Southern, May 2020.