Balcombe Station (Brighton Main Line)

[Mcr Warrior]

Anyone know if the platforms at Balcombe Station are now sufficiently long enough to allow passengers to alight from all 12 carriages of a 12 car formation?

 

[mintcake]

The up platform holds 12 but the down is only 8, though not been there for a while.

 

[paul1609]

Unless its been extended in the last month its 8 coaches only on the southbound platform and very difficult to extend because of the overbridge.

 

[bangor-toad]

Both the Up & Down platforms used to be able to take a 12 car train.

The Up platform still can but the Down was demolished when a train crashed at Balcombe and destroyed the platform. It was only a traditional Southern style concrete slabs on pillars and it didn't withstand the ballast train that went wrong.

I lived nearby at the time and went to look at the aftermath.
(Must be about 25 year ago I think...)


I think it was never deemed economic to rebuild all the length of the Down platform and it was only fixed to 8 car length.

Cheers,
Jason

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The up platform holds 12 but the down is only 8, though not been there for a while.

So noted. In that case, I wonder why the automated announcements on 12 car London bound trains say that only the doors in the front 8 carriages will open at this station?

Might be because of the "short" platforms on the other side (!)

 

[Evvy73]

I think that is exactly the reason. My train in the mornings is a 10 (442) or 12 (377) carriage train and for a while if you were sat in the back four carriages (377) you would indeed be in 'no mans land' whilst we stopped at Balcombe.
Of late however, we do seem to use the full length of the platform, so maybe the drivers have been told to use the full length of the 'up' platform regardless of announcements?
I can't really say if the announcements have changed of late as I usually have my headphones on so don't listen to announcements (as long as everything appears to be running normally).

 

[DavyCrocket]

As said the Down is 8 cars only.

As to the Up line the platforms are 12 cars long, but I think the car stopping marker says something. I'll have a look on Monday.

 

[Fincra5]

I think even though the Up is 12 cars only 8 will open. Something to do with the GPS system used on the 377s for Selective doors. I seem to remember that it uses the shortest platfrom as a base or something.