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Bognor Regis railway station

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Bognor Regis railway station is in the town of Bognor Regis, in the English county of West Sussex. It opened as the terminus of a short branch line in 1864, replacing a more distant station on the Worthing to Chichester main line. Like the town it served, it was known as Bognor until 1929. The junction on the main line is Barnham station, opened on the same day as the branch itself.

Bognor Regis
National Rail
Bognor Regis Station
General information
LocationBognor Regis, Arun, West Sussex
England
Grid referenceSZ934994
Managed bySouthern
Platforms4
Other information
Station codeBOG
ClassificationDfT category D
History
Opened1 June 1864
Passengers
2018/19Increase 1.095 million
2019/20Decrease 1.074 million
2020/21Decrease 0.426 million
2021/22Increase 0.907 million
2022/23Increase 1.025 million
Listed Building – Grade II
FeatureRailway Station
Designated8 August 1989
Reference no.1027734[1]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
A 1947 Ordnance Survey map, showing Bognor Regis station
Bognor Regis station and pointwork

With the developing leisure traffic travelling to the resort, the opportunity was taken to provide a lavish and commodious station in 1902. Electrification followed in 1937 as part of the Portsmouth No. 2 Electrification scheme of the Southern Railway, and a frequent service of trains from London was provided.

Bognor Regis station is approximately 54 miles (87 km) southwest of London Victoria. The station is managed and serviced by Southern, a Govia Thameslink Railway brand. The train service on the main line and the branch is known as the West Coastway Line.

History

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The first station to serve Bognor was situated on the Brighton to Chichester main line at Woodgate Crossing, a little more than one mile (1.6 km) west of the present Barnham railway station. It was opened on 8 June 1846 by the Brighton and Chichester Railway, which was absorbed into the London Brighton and South Coast Railway when that company was formed a few weeks later. At first there were no branch lines on the main route, and the station was about three miles (4.8 km) from Bognor itself.[2]

This original Bognor station was renamed Woodgate for Bognor in November 1846, and seems to have been erratically named in Bradshaw as Woodgate or Bognor.[3]

In 1845 a railway connection to Barnham from Guildford had been proposed, but that, and later proposed local lines in 1853 and 1855 foundered. Nevertheless it was obvious that without a railway connection, a community was at a severe disadvantage due to the high cost of transporting heavy materials, and local interests put forward a further scheme, which was authorised as the Bognor Railway, by Act of 11 July 1861.[2][4]

The new branch line opened for traffic on 1 June 1864; a new station, called Barnham, was provided on the main line at the point of junction of the branch. There were no intermediate stations. The old Barnham (or Woodgate) station, together with Yapton station, nearby on the main line, closed. The new branch line was 3 miles 46 chains (5.75 km) in length, and was single track.[2][5]

The station master at Woodgate had been a Mr Robinson; on his death in 1862, his daughter Miss Robinson had been employed in the booking office and continued until leaving on marrying, the following year. "She must have been one of the earliest women clerks on railways in Britain."[6]

The Bognor Railway Company was independent of the LBSCR, but was absorbed by it in 1870.[7]

 
Concourse of Bognor station in 1905

Bognor station suffered partial destruction twice: it was blown down in a gale in 1897, and then burned down in 1899.[8][9] The present station buildings by the company architect C.D. Collins[10] date from 1902 and have achieved grade II listed building status[1] as an Edwardian period seaside station terminus.[11][12]

The line was doubled at the immediate area of Bognor station in 1902 to ease station working, from Bearsted Crossing, a distance of about 200 yards (180 m).[8] The remainder of the branch was doubled on 30 July 1911; the work included the remodelling of the layout at Barnham to incorporate a double junction immediately west of the station, enabling direct running to and from the branch, which had not previously been possible.[13][5]

Electrification

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The electrification of the Mid-Sussex line and associated connections was known as the Portsmouth No 2 Electrification (after the Portsmouth Direct Line). A government loan at a cheap rate of interest was made available under the Railways (Agreement) Act 1935. The electrification was on the third-rail direct current system already in use in the London suburban area and on the Portsmouth Direct Line. It comprised the route from Dorking to Horsham and onwards through Arundel to the coastal junction at Ford and on to Havant (for Portsmouth). The line from West Worthing to Ford was included, and the Littlehampton and Bognor Regis branches were covered. Barnham and Bognor Regis stations had their platforms extended to 820 feet (250 m) to enable 12-car trains to use them, and the layout at Barnham was altered to facilitate dividing and combining trains there. A new 66-lever frame was provided at Bognor Regis signalbox. New electrified berthing sidings were provided.[14]

The official inauguration took place on 30 June 1938, and regular electric services commenced on 2 July 1938. The normal fast train service to Bognor Regis from Victoria was via Sutton, Dorking and Horsham, dividing at Barnham. The front four-car unit detached and continued forward to Portsmouth, and the rear 8 cars (4-Buf + 4-Cor) ran to Bognor Regis. At peak times some London trains ran via Three Bridges, or to and from London Bridge.[14][15]

Suffix Regis

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Before 1930, The town was known simply as Bognor. The Royal Suffix of the area was added In 1930, after King George V convalesced there in 1929, in recognition of the ambience, facilities and general well-being he enjoyed in and around the area.[16][5]

Facilities

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The station has a ticket office, car park, and 4 platforms in use: platforms 1 to 3 are 12 carriages in length whilst platform 4 is only 4 carriages long. The station has a small Café.

Services

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

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[17]

On Sundays, the service to London Victoria is reduced to hourly. The shuttle services to Barnham do not run, and there is instead an hourly service to Littlehampton.

Preceding station   National Rail Following station
Southern
Bognor Regis Branch
Terminus

Accidents and incidents

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  • On 14 November 2008, a passenger train was derailed at the station during a period of resignalling and single line working due to a signaller's error.[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b Historic England, "Railway Station (1027734)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 26 June 2017
  2. ^ a b c J T Howard Turner, The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, volume 2: Establishment and Growth, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1978, 0 7134 1198 8, pages 140 to 142
  3. ^ M E Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England, Wales and Scotland: A Chronology, version 5.04, September 2022, Railway and Canal Historical Society, electronic download; "Woodgate"
  4. ^ Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, ISBN 978 1785893 537, page 58
  5. ^ a b c H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume II: Southern England, Phoenix House, London, 1961, page 103
  6. ^ Southern Railway Magazine, 1943, 16, quoted in Turner, volume 2, page 142
  7. ^ J T Howard Turner, The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, volume 3: Completion and Maturity, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1979, ISBN 0 7134 1389 1, page 68
  8. ^ a b Turner, volume 3, page 155
  9. ^ Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, South Coast Railways: Worthing to Chichester, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 1983, ISBN 0 906520 06 1, section Bognor
  10. ^ "Bognor Station Improvements". Chichester Observer. 26 September 1900. Retrieved 26 June 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ^ Minnis, John (1999). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway. Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-1626-X. p.29.
  12. ^ "Railway Station - A Grade II Listed Building in Bognor Regis, West Sussex". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  13. ^ Turner, volume 3, page 164
  14. ^ a b David Brown, Southern Electric: A New History, volume 2, Capital Transport Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978 185414 340 2, pages 32 to 34
  15. ^ White, page 192
  16. ^ Sylvia Endacott and Shirley Lewis, Reflections of Bognor Regis, History Press Limited, 2007, not paginated
  17. ^ Table 178 National Rail timetable, December 2022
  18. ^ "Passenger train derailed in November 2008" (PDF). Rail Accident Investigation Branch. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Rail Accident Investigation Branch Safety digest 08/2020: Bognor Regis Passenger train derailment at Bognor Regis station, West Sussex, 22 October 2020" (PDF). Rail Accident Investigation Branch. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
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