Trains to Three Bridges

There may be plenty of railway bridges near the busy junction of Three Bridges in Crawley, West Sussex but that's not where the name comes from. A small village was here well before the railway came, named after three nearby crossings over tributaries of the River Mole. What can be attributed to the railway is the area's blossoming into a much bigger town. In 1841 Three Bridges station opened as part of the London and Brighton Railway and over the next few decades other lines, yards and a depot followed, along with the associated housing and commercial growth. Nowadays, Three Bridges station is still a key intersection of the London-to-Brighton and London-to-Portsmouth lines. It is also home to an operating centre that controls signals across a large part of the South East. Some three million passenger journeys start or end at the station every year with upwards of 16 trains an hour calling here.