West Coastway line

West Coastway line
Looking eastwards from Fishersgate, April 2007.
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	West Sussex Hampshire South East England
Termini	Brighton Southampton
Stations	39
Service
Type	Suburban rail, Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	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(s)	Brighton Littlehampton Fratton Southampton
Rolling 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"
History
Opened	1840
Technical
Line length	62 mi 4 ch (99.86 km)
Number of tracks	2 (up to 4 in areas)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC third rail
Operating speed	85 mph (137 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e West Coastway line
Legend
South West Main Line to Bournemouth & Weymouth Southampton Central Southampton West End Southampton Tunnel to Southampton Docks Northam Road (1839–40) St Denys South West Main Line to London Waterloo River Itchen Bitterne Woolston Sholing Netley Netley Hospital Hamble Hamble-le-Rice oil terminal Bursledon Crow Park Halt ( 1918–1920 workmen only ) Swanwick Eastleigh–Fareham line to Eastleigh Fareham Fareham–Gosport line to Fort Brockhurst Portchester M27 Paulsgrove Halt Cosham Portsmouth Harbour 45 mi 36 ch 73.14 km Portsmouth & Southsea 44 mi 50 ch 71.82 km Fratton 43 mi 64 ch 70.49 km Hilsea 41 mi 41 ch 66.81 km Cosham Junction 41 mi 4 ch 66.06 km Portcreek Junction 41 mi 3 ch 66.04 km Farlington Halt Farlington Junction 40 mi 38 ch 65.14 km Bedhampton 38 mi 14 ch 61.44 km Havant 37 mi 41 ch 60.37 km Hayling Island branch line to Hayling Island Portsmouth Direct line to Woking Warblington 36 mi 66 ch 59.26 km Emsworth 35 mi 50 ch 57.33 km Southbourne 34 mi 16 ch 55.04 km Nutbourne 33 mi 14 ch 53.39 km Bosham 31 mi 43 ch 50.75 km Fishbourne 30 mi 12 ch 48.52 km Midhurst Railways West Sussex Railway to Selsey Beach Chichester 28 mi 51 ch 46.09 km Drayton (closed 1930) Woodgate (closed 1864) Bognor Regis 25 mi 75 ch 41.74 km Barnham 22 mi 29 ch 35.99 km Yapton (closed 1864) Ford 19 mi 55 ch 31.68 km Arun Bridge over River Arun Ford Junction 19 mi 31 ch 31.2 km Littlehampton Junction Arundel Junction 19 mi 1 ch 30.6 km Littlehampton Arun Valley line to Horsham Lyminster (closed 1914) Arundel and Littlehampton Angmering 15 mi 44 ch 25.03 km Goring-by-Sea 13 mi 7 ch 21.06 km Durrington-on-Sea 12 mi 13 ch 19.57 km West Worthing 11 mi 30 ch 18.31 km Worthing 10 mi 46 ch 17.02 km East Worthing 9 mi 55 ch 15.59 km Lancing 8 mi 19 ch 13.26 km Shoreham Airport Halt 6 mi 77 ch 11.21 km Shoreham Viaduct over River Adur Steyning Line to Christ's Hospital Shoreham-by-Sea 5 mi 69 ch 9.43 km Kingston-on-Sea (closed 1879) Southwick 4 mi 30 ch 7.04 km Fishersgate 3 mi 47 ch 5.77 km Portslade 2 mi 73 ch 4.69 km Brighton and Dyke Railway to The Dyke 2 mi 1 ch 3.24 km Dyke Junction Halt (closed 1932) Aldrington 1 mi 74 ch 3.1 km Hove 1 mi 35 ch 2.31 km Hove Junction Cliftonville Spur Holland Road Halt 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove (first station) 0 mi 75 ch 1.51 km Hove Tunnel ( 220 yd 201 m ) Cliftonville Tunnel Brighton 0 mi 0 ch 0 km Brighton Main Line to London East Coastway line to Lewes
Distances measured from Brighton

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.