Brighton Train Main Line Information
Original Proposals
The first was made in 1823, supported by Mr. Thomas Yeoman of Brighton, but nothing came of it. The second was presented in 1824 by two citizens of London, William James and Edward Burtenshaw Sugden. In 1827 a further scheme appeared brought forward by George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont and supported by the railway pioneer George Stephenson. In 1846 Sir Rowland Hill proposed a line from London to Chichester via Horsham and Shoreham (later altered to run to Portsmouth via Hove and Worthing).
In 1849 a proposal came from John Urpeth Rastrick; and in 1852 one from Peter Bruff, Brighton Town Press (brightontownpress.co.uk). In December 1845, a Parliamentary Bill for building a railway between London and Brighton was deposited in the House of Commons, and the railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 19 May 1846. Within six months, four more Bills had been deposited: on 20 July 1846, the London & Brighton Railway was incorporated; two days later the promoters of the Croydon Railway Company lodged their scheme; and on 26 July another proposal was deposited which would create a line from Epsom to Horsham with several branches.
This scheme had a branch to Leatherhead. The Brighton, Croydon and Dover Railway (BCDR) had proposed lines from three northern termini to London Bridge. These schemes were rejected in favour of the South Eastern Railway's line from London Bridge to Charing Cross, submitted to Parliament on 4 August 1853. The SER shared its headquarters with the LCDR at 167-171 Fenchurch Street and since both sets of directors were generally opposed to the L&BR proposal, it was effectively a liquidation of the BCDR scheme.
One was from London and Brighton Railway in 1845 and 1846. The London and Brighton Railway was incorporated on 15 April 1846 which absorbed the previous company. The London and Brighton Railway Bill received Royal Assent on 5 July 1846. Construction commenced in 1847 and the line opened on 21 September 1849, when the railway ran from a temporary terminus at Bridge Junction in Bermondsey, near London Bridge, to a permanent terminus at Brighton.
Lodges at either end of the route from London to Brighton made their own detailed proposals. The two favored schemes came from the London and Brighton companies. These were considered by Parliament in 1844, and for the time being the bill for their proposed line was withdrawn in favour of a third plan promoted jointly by them, which became the London and Croydon Railway (1845). You can visit many different places in and around Brighton by train.
