Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express Trains at Haywards Heath on October 3rd 2025

2nd visit to Haywards Heath on Brighton Main Line although my last visit was way back in December 2018.

Featuring services from Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express plus one freighter

Haywards Heath was first opened on July 12th 1842 by the London & Brighton Railway as a terminus for 2 months. The reason is was during construction of the Haywards Heath Tunnel to the South of the station a section of the Roof fell sadly 3 men were killed.

Other issues in construction was that the cutting at nearby Folly Hill was that soils and Sandstone that required blasting caused difficulties.

Temporarily Horse & Coach were required to transport passengers to Brighton until the line towards Brighton opened on September 21st although the mainline was electrified in 1933.

South of the Tunnel is Keymer junction where the line via Lewes joins up with the Brighton Main Line which was opened by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1846

Another branch opened in 1883 by the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway was known as the Ardingly Branch between Haywards Heath and Horsted Keynes. Although that branch line was electrified in 1935 however closed to Freight in 1962 and Passengers in 1963 after being controversially axed by Dr Beeching.

However the trackbed is still owned by the Bluebell Railway although the branch is retained for use for freight at Hanson Aggregates.

The station itself has had a complete change in 2014 as part of the new "Station Quarter" which included a new car park, footbridge for Step Free Access, a overhaul of the station buildings as well as a new Waitrose Supermarket.

The footbridge was completed in 2016 whilst the new Waitrose didn't open until the following year in 2017.

The 4 platforms at the station are nowadays used by all services from Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express

Southern services to and from London Victoria operate to Littlehampton via Hove and Eastbourne via Lewes with a few extended to Ore which nowadays provided by Class 377 Electrostars which at the time of filming just completed a mid life refurbishment

In recent times Class 387s are also used for Southern workings with some sets being transferred by Transferred over from Great Northern including some 387/1s and 387/3s

Thameslink Services operated by Class 700 Desiro City since 2017 operate 4 trains per hour with 2 per hour between Bedford and Brighton with the other 2 operating between Cambridge and Brighton via London Bridge.

Gatwick Express is operated by Class 387s with a half hourly service between London Victoria and Brighton which in the past use to run non stop through here however in a recent timetable change due to demand nowadays all GX services call here and Gatwick Airport only with a few exceptions being at peak times with some also calling next station South on the Brighton Main Line at Burgess Hill.

All three companies are due to be nationalised by end of May 2026 which management will be handed over temporarily to DFTs Operation of Resort which is likely that the brand names will be retained during the transition.

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - Copyr...  

Filmed on Friday October 3rd 2025 on iPhone 17 Pro and edited on iMovie

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