Transport in Brighton and Hove

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The city of Brighton & Hove on the south coast of England has long had a variety of transportation. Today it has a major railway station, an extensive bus service, a large number of taxis, and even a small (but growing) auto rickshaw service. In the past it has had trolley buses and ferry and hydrofoil services.

1 Rail
2 Bus
3 Taxis
4 Auto rickshaws
5 Trams
6 External links

[edit] Rail

Brighton railway station was built in 1840 by the London & Brighton Railway, which also established one of the first railway-owned locomotive works (now gone). The station provides fast and frequent connections to Gatwick Airport, several London main-line stations, Luton Airport and Bedford, usually via the Brighton main line although some services use less direct routes, especially during periods of engineering work.

Regular services also operate via Bristol to Wales, and to Birmingham and Manchester. The Manchester service once continued to Glasgow, as Virgin Trains route VT3, and before that, under British Rail it went on to Dundee as the "Sussex Scot". This service has been cancelled and re-introduced in the past, but is not currently available (as of 2006).

The express London Victoria service takes 51 minutes today, compared with one hour in 1910, 80 minutes in 1859 and up to two hours in 1841.

Many London trains, though not the fastest expresses, stop at Brighton's other station on the Brighton main line: Preston Park railway station.

In addition to the main line to London, Brighton railway station also has connections to Hove and the West Coastway Line, and Lewes on the East Coastway Line. Intermediate stations within Brighton are London Road railway station and Moulsecoomb railway station, both on the Lewes line.

There were once three further stops on a line to the Kemptown area of Brighton: Lewes Road railway station, Hartington Road Halt and the terminus, Kemptown railway station. The entire line is closed and largely demolished.

Volk's Electric Railway, created in 1883, runs along the inland edge of the beach from the Palace Pier to Black Rock. It is claimed to be the world's oldest operating electric railway.

Between 1894 and 1901 there was another electric railway, also created by Magnus Volk: the "daddy long legs" used tracks laid out under the sea, avoiding the need to build a viaduct. The carriage had tall iron legs and carried the passengers above the waves. This ran from the Banjo Groyne to Rottingdean. It was never able to withstand stormy weather, and after several collapses and reconstructions, and final insurmountable problem of changes to the sea defences, it was abandoned. A small portion of its concrete foundations can sometimes be seen along the route at low tide between the Marina and Rottingdean.

[edit] Bus

Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company (merged into the Go-Ahead Group in 1993) operates a local bus service with approximately 300 buses. The former Brighton "Blue Buses" company dated back to the 1880s, and was taken over by Brighton and Hove in 1997. The council and bus company run a city-wide real-time bus information service. There is a limited night-bus service on some routes including "Metro routes" 7 & 25.

Other than London, Brighton and Hove is the only place in the country to have increased bus passenger numbers over the past few years, whereas many other towns and cities in the UK experience major bus decline. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Taxis

The city is served by a large number of taxis, operated by a variety of companies and individual drivers. Those which may be hailed on the street are painted in a standard white and aqua livery; private hire cars are not required to follow this colour scheme.

[edit] Auto rickshaws

As of mid-2006, auto rickshaws have been operating a network in Brighton. They operate set routes. The rickshaws must be hailed at a dedicated stop. Auto rickshaws are painted in a variety of bright colours, but are clearly recognisable thanks to their unique styling. They are powered by compressed natural gas.

[edit] Trams

Trams were run by first the Aldrington Tramway (1884-1912), then Brighton Corporation Tramways (1901-1939). Routes included the Aquarium to Brighton Station (route "S"), London Road ("B"), Ditchling Road ("D"), Elm Grove ("E"), Lewes Road ("L"), Queens Park ("Q"), and New England Hill/Dyke Road ("N").