The Portsmouth to Brighton Railway was built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and its immediate predecessor in several stages.

The London and Brighton Railway built a branch line from Brighton to Shoreham, an important seaport. The branch opened in 1840. Under the London Brighton and South Coast Railway the line was extended progressively to Portsmouth, reached in 1847. The London and South Western Railway had a roundabout connection to Portsmouth, and the final route section on Portsea Island was operated jointly with the LSWR. Although the LBSCR coast route connected many important resorts, the trunk route from London to Portsmouth was commercially dominant, and the LSWR acquired the Portsmouth Direct Line, which was a better and shorter route. The LBSCR took steps to improve its own route, but it never became fully competitive with the LSWR for London traffic.

The line became the stem of several branch lines, as holiday travel, and later residential travel rose in importance, equalling agriculture and light industry. From 1906 steam railmotors were used in connection with new halts, simple low-cost passenger stations, and in 1937 the line was electrified on the third-rail system as part of an ambitious modernisation scheme implemented by the later Southern Railway.

Although some of the inland branches have closed, the coastal route and most of the coastal connections continue in use at the present day. A busy passenger train service operates on the line, including through journeys to the adjacent line to Southampton, under the branding West Coastway.

History London and Brighton Railway

The London and Brighton Railway was authorised the London and Brighton Railway Act 1837 (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. cxix) on 15 July 1837. It was to build from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway at Norwood to Brighton, and to build branches east and west at Brighton, to Lewes and Newhaven, and to Shoreham. At that time Shoreham was an important port, and ease of trading with the continent of Europe was considered essential.J T Howard Turner, The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, volume 1: Origins and Formation, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1977, , pages 34 and 38

Land acquisition was a slow process, and contracts for construction were let in 1838 and 1839. A contract for the Shoreham branch was let to John Hale and George Wythes of Frimley. However it was reported in April 1839 that the permanent way on the Shoreham branch had been laid for a distance of nearly four miles, and that Hove tunnel was well forward.

The Shoreham branch was much easier to construct than the main line, and it was realised that it would be complete at least a year before the main line. On 12 April 1839 it was decided to proceed with one line only the Shoreham branch until the works were complete, thus delaying unnecessary expenditure.Turner, volume 1, page 135Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 329

Opening of the first part of the line

The Brighton to Shoreham line was opened to passengers on 12 May 1840. The main line from London did not open to Brighton until 21 September 1841.Turner, volume 1, page 142N Pallant, The Brighton to Portsmouth Line, The Oakwood Press, Usk, 1980, , pages 6 and 7 It is likely that goods traffic started a few days before 26 July 1841.Turner, volume 1, page 162

The harbour at Kingston, a short distance to the east of the Shoreham terminus, was important commercially, and it soon became a principal port for crossings to and from Dieppe. The wharf was accessed by a short inclined plane running at right angles to the main line and the waterfront; there were wagon turntables at each end, and haulage was by a chain connected to a stationary engine; on the wharf horses provided the traction. The access to the wharf had to cross the turnpike road; a level crossing had been authorised in the company's act of Parliament, but the turnpike trustees objected to it, and an impasse developed. The disagreement was eventually resolved after recourse to legal advice, in favour of the company.

By 8 July 1840 more than 300,000 passengers had been carried. However, there had been numerous personal accidents; over 240 people had been admitted to hospital.Turner, volume 1, page 160

The company considered taking road coaches by rail on the branch, on 8 March 1841. The bad state of the roads was a matter of concern to the coach proprietors, and as a result the committee decided that two wagons should be altered to carriage trucks, and temporary stages for loading were to be erected at Brighton and Shoreham.The word proprietor probably means simply the private owner, not the operator of a commercial business. This is a very early version of Motorail, 1966 to 2005.Turner, volume 1, page 162

If there were thoughts at this stage of extending to Portsmouth, then the issue became urgent when the London and South Western Railway opened its line to Gosport, connecting to Portsmouth by a ferry, referred to at the time as a floating bridge. The Gosport line was opened in 1841.R A Williams, The London and South Western Railway: volume 1: The Formative Years, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, , page 123 The LSWR was robust in maintaining that Gosport was a perfectly adequate railhead for Portsmouth, and yet there were already calls for a further LSWR line from Fareham, on the Gosport line, to Portsmouth around the head of Portsmouth Harbour.Williams, page 137Turner, volume 1, pages 206 to 208

Early train services

In 1844 the Shoreham passenger service consisted of nine trains each way between Brighton and Shoreham. Five down and six up trains are annotated in Bradshaw's GuideBradshaw' Guide was a publisher of railway timetables on sale to the public. to the effect that first class passengers may be booked throughout between London and Shoreham by those trains "without change of carriage or removal of luggage; second and third class passengers may go by the same trains but they will be liable to a change of carriage".Bradshaw's Railway Companion, published by D Bogue, London, 1844, page 9qTurner, volume 1, page 259

Extending to Chichester

Proposals came forward for a Brighton and Chichester Railway, and it was supported by the London and Brighton Railway, which agreed to work the line when it was ready. The Brighton and Chichester Railway got its authorising act of Parliament, the Brighton and Chichester Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. lxvii), on 4 July 1844. Authorised share capital was £300,000 on the basis of building a double track formation but only laying a single track. The London and Brighton Railway was empowered to purchase the line. Among the stations were Littlehampton, Arundel and Bognor, all some distance from the communities in their name and all replaced by stations on other lines later on.

The bridge over the River Arun at "Arundel" (later Ford) had to be made capable of being opened and providing a 60 feet clear passage for vessels on the river; a structure with two sliding and turning spans was installed. On the eastern shore a structure was located on tracks running at right angles to the railway. To open the bridge, this structure was moved laterally, to the south, making a space immediately to the east of the main bridge structure. This was a balanced beam 144 feet long, on a wheeled carriage, and could now be moved eastwards on its own wheels into the gap now created. The main structure was timber, weighing 70 tons, and the bridge was made for a single track only. Two men and a boy were said to be capable of opening and closing the bridge.Turner, volume 1, pages 210 to 212Frederick S Williams, Our Iron Roads, Ingram, Cooke and Co, London, 1852, page 173

The line was opened in stages: from Shoreham to Worthing on 24 November 1845; from Worthing to "Littlehampton" (Lyminster) on 16 March 1846; and from there to Chichester on 8 June 1846.Pallant, page 10

Formation of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway

The London and Brighton Railway had been independent of neighbouring railway companies, and often on difficult terms with them. However the advantages of combination became increasingly clear, and this led to the formation of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, by the amalgamation of the London and Brighton Railway and the London and Croydon Railway. Three other companies were absorbed into the new LBSCR: the Croydon and Epsom Railway, the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway, and the Brighton and Chichester Railway. The creation of the LBSCR was authorised by the London and Brighton Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cclxxxii) of 27 July 1846; its aggregate authorised share capital was £5,581,000.Turner, volume 1, page 277

Reaching Portsmouth

There was continuing dissatisfaction in Portsmouth with its rail connection to London; this was provided by the LSWR from Gosport, via Bishopstoke. In 1844 a number of schemes were put forward, but the Brighton and Chichester Railway's own proposal, an extension from Chichester to Portsmouth, was the only serious possibility, and it obtained the (8 & 9 Vict. c. cxcix) on 8 August 1845.Turner, volume 1, page 235

The LSWR was planning an extension to Portsmouth from Fareham, on its Gosport branch line, through Cosham and into Portsea Island. The LBSCR was authorised to build a branch to Fareham from its new line unless the LSWR built the line itself. In the event the LBSCR built to a point just west of Cosham and the LSWR from there to Fareham. The Cosham line ran from a triangular junction, at Farlington Junction and Portcreek Junction. The line from the meeting point just west of Cosham to Portsmouth was made joint between the Brighton company and the LSWR.Turner, volume 1, pages 236 and 237

The lines were opened progressively: Chichester — Havant: 15 March 1847 Havant — Portsmouth: 14 June 1847 Farlington Junction — Cosham 26 July 1848 (for goods) and 2 January 1860 for passengers Portcreek Junction — Cosham Junction 1 September 1848 (for goods); and for passengers 11 October 1848 Cosham — Fareham: 1 September 1848:(LSWR).Turner, volume 1, pages 237 and 238

Although the Cosham connection gave the LSWR a through route from London to Portsmouth, it continued to emphasise the Gosport line as the preferred means of access for London passengers.

Early branch lines As an early trunk railway, the Brighton to Portsmouth line was the connection for several branch lines.

The Adur Valley Line

When the London and Brighton Railway was being planned, there was a body of opinion that the best route for the main line would be through the Mole Gap, where the River Mole cuts a valley through the North Downs, between Leatherhead and Dorking. Further south this line would have reached the south coast at Shoreham, at the time an important seaport, and then run east to Brighton. That plan did not get adopted, and the Brighton main line ran further east.

In the 1850s the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway became adversaries over claiming territory: if a company could establish itself as dominant in an area, a rival found it difficult to break in to the area and compete. On 5 May 1845 the London and South Western Railway opened its line to Guildford,Williams, volume 1, page 132

The LSWR was known to be interested in extending from there through Horsham to Steyning, and this motivated the LBSCR to build what became the Adur Valley Line, from Steyning to Horsham. It opened throughout on 16 September 1861. Although appearing to have useful potential for through traffic, the line never developed beyond a purely local rural line.Leslie Oppitz, Sussex Railways Remembered, Countryside books, Newbury, 1987, , page 31Pallant, page 18

Arundel and Littlehampton