Barnham railway station

Barnham railway station is in Barnham, West Sussex, England around north of Bognor Regis.

It is located on the West Coastway Line between Brighton and Southampton, down the line from via . The station and all services are operated by Southern which operate at the station using Class 377 EMUs.

History

Barnham station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway on 1 June 1864, with the new branch line to Bognor Regis, for which Barnham was the junction, opening the same day. It was sited on the LB&SCR Brighton to Portsmouth line to the west of the original Yapton station, and to the east of Woodgate station.

Platforms

Barnham is the junction station for the short branch to Bognor Regis. It is also a well-used interchange for passengers between slow and fast services. It has eastbound services to London Victoria via Horsham and Gatwick Airport, Brighton via Worthing and Littlehampton via Ford, as well as westbound services to Bognor Regis, Portsmouth, Southampton. Trains travelling from east to west (i.e. heading towards Chichester and Bognor Regis) sometimes divide (or attach in the case of west to east services) at Barnham, particularly services on Sundays.

Platform 1 - Westbound services towards Bognor Regis (either starting at Barnham or from Littlehampton)
Platform 2 - Westbound services towards Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton or Bognor Regis (from London)
Platform 3 - Eastbound services towards Littlehampton, Brighton, London

Services

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

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

4 tph to via (2 of these run non-stop to Horsham and 2 are stopping services - the fast and stopping services attach at Horsham, giving 2 tph to London Victoria beyond Horsham)
4 tph to (1 of these runs via Littlehampton)
4 tph to
2 tph to
3 tph to of which 2 continue to
1 tph to Chichester

In the peak hours, the station is served by a single service between Bognor Regis and London Bridge via Littlehampton.

Former services

Until May 2022, Great Western Railway operated limited services between Brighton, Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Temple Meads that called at Barnham.

Accidents and incidents

On 1 August 1962, an electric multiple unit was derailed when points switched under it due to an electrical fault. Thirty-eight people were injured. The cause was an electrical short circuit due to a metal washer that had been left behind after maintenance, which caused a false feed to the points motor under unusual circumstances with a very high power load from three trains accelerating simultaneously. Adrian Vaughan commented; "One gets a nasty feeling wondering where the next washer is, at this moment, lying in wait with the potential of mayhem". Before his book had even been published, the Clapham Junction disaster occurred, with a very similar cause.