The LB&SCR was essentially a passenger-carrying concern, with goods and mineral traffic playing a limited role in its receipts. As originally envisaged the railway was a trunk route, conveying passengers (and to a lesser extent goods) between London, Croydon and the south coast, with relatively little traffic to and from stations in between. However, the railway's existence began to generate new goods and passenger traffic at towns and villages on or near the main line, such as
Reigate,
Crawley and
Haywards Heath. This also applied to
Sussex and
Surrey market towns such as
Lewes,
Horsham,
East Grinstead and
Dorking as soon as these were connected to the rail network. After 1870 the development of the London suburbs south of the Thames had a profound effect on the nature of the railway. The development of
Newhaven harbour was also a stimulus to the development of both categories of traffic. The speed and punctuality of many LB&SCR passenger services was the subject of widespread criticism in the technical and popular press during the 1890s. This was in part due in part to the complexity of the system between London and Croydon, with a large number of signals and junctions, the sharing of stretches of line with the SER, and the relatively short routes, which gave little opportunity to make up for lost time. The LB&SCR gradually began to rebuild its reputation during the 20th century through improvements to mainline infrastructure and electrification of suburban services.
Express passenger services The company had no long-distance express trains, with a maximum journey length of . Nevertheless, frequent express passenger services ran to the most important coastal destinations from both London Bridge and Victoria. Season ticket revenue, particularly from Brighton to London, was the backbone of the LB&SCR's finances for most of the 19th century. The morning
rush hour business services were among "the heaviest express services in the world" in the 1880s, with loads of 360 tons. The LB&SCR pioneered all-Pullman trains in England, the
Pullman Limited Express on 5 December 1881. It consisted of four cars built at the Pullman Car Company workshops in
Derby,
Beatrice,
Louise,
Maud and
Victoria, the first electrically lit coaches on a British railway. The train made two down and two up trips per day, one each way on Sundays. It was renamed the
Brighton Pullman Limited in 1887, and first-class carriages were attached. A new train was built in 1888: three Pullmans were shipped over in parts from the Pullman Palace Car Company in America, and assembled by the LB&SCR at Brighton. The
Brighton Limited was introduced on 2 October 1898. It ran only on Sundays, and not in July–September. It was timed to make the journey from Victoria in 60 minutes: "London to Brighton in one hour" was the advertisement used for the first time. On 21 December 1902 it made a record run of 54 minutes. It hit the headlines again when, faced with the threat of a competing electric railway being built from London to Brighton, it ran to Brighton in 48 minutes 41 seconds and the return to London in 50 minutes 21 seconds, matching the schedule put forward by the promoters of the electric line.
The Southern Belle, introduced 8 November 1908, was described as "the most luxurious train in the World." By 1910 two trips each way were running every day; later three were run on Sundays. Third-class Pullman cars began running on Sunday 12 September 1915 from Victoria to Brighton and
Eastbourne.
Stopping trains Slower passenger services between London and the south coast often divided at East Croydon to serve both the London termini, and combined there for down trains, so East Croydon had an important nodal function in the system. After 1867, following the opening of the direct line to Horsham, Sutton acted as a similar node for passenger trains between London and Portsmouth.
Slip coaches The LB&SCR appears to have invented the practice of
slipping coaches from the rear of express trains at intermediate stations for onward transmission to branch lines or smaller stations on the main line. The earliest recorded example was at
Haywards Heath in February 1858, where coaches for
Hastings were slipped from a London–Brighton express. The slipping was coordinated by a series of communication bell signals between the guards on the two portions of the train and the locomotive crew. Before 1914, twenty-one coaches were slipped each day on the Brighton main line. Coaches were slipped at
Horley and
Three Bridges for stations to
East Grinstead,
Forest Row and
Horsham, or at
Haywards Heath for stations to
Brighton and
Eastbourne. The practice continued until the electrification of the main line in 1932.
London suburban traffic After 1870, the LB&SCR greatly encouraged commuters into London by reducing the prices of season tickets and introducing special
''workmen's trains for manual workers in that year. By May 1890 the company was operating 10,773 trains into its London termini each month, more than any other company. This growth changed the character of the railway and had a profound influence upon its
motive power policy and passenger train services. In the 1870s and 1880s it led to the building of new standard
tank engine classes such as the
Terrier'' and
D1 classes under
William Stroudley.
R. J. Billinton replaced these with the
D3,
E3,
E4, and
E5 classes designed for London suburban services, during the 1890s. When steam locomotives became unable to cope with the increased suburban traffic and competition from electric trams in the early 20th century, it resulted in the electrification of the London suburban network.
Excursion and holiday traffic Excursion trains from London to the South Coast and the Sussex countryside had been introduced in 1844, and were a feature of the LB&SCR throughout its existence. Special fares to Brighton and other south coast resorts on summer Sundays and at bank holidays were regularly advertised in the press. Likewise, special trains serving the regular fetes and exhibitions at Crystal Palace during the summer months. After 1870 the LB&SCR sought to develop the holiday and excursion trade and market other south coast resorts such as
Hayling Island and the
Isle of Wight as holiday destinations, by publishing a range of attractive posters. On the Isle of Wight the LB&SCR and the L&SWR jointly took over the ferry service from Portsmouth and built new pier at
Ryde with a short line to the station at
St John's Road in 1880. During the 1900s the company ran special Sunday trains to enable London cyclists to explore the Sussex and Surrey countryside. By 1905 the railway was offering day trips to
Dieppe and circular tickets, valid for a month, to enable Londoners to explore towns along the South Coast. In 1904 the Great Western Railway inaugurated holiday trains during the summer months from
Birkenhead to Brighton and Eastbourne, in conjunction with the LB&SCR. The following year LB&SCR and L&NWR jointly operated the
Sunny South Special from
Liverpool and
Manchester to these destinations. These trains operated via the
West London lines, with the LB&SCR responsible for their operation from Kensington or Willesden. The LB&SCR served important
Horse racing tracks at
Brighton,
Epsom,
Gatwick,
Goodwood,
Lewes,
Lingfield and
Plumpton, and
Portsmouth Park (Farlington). Race day special trains were an important source of revenue during the summer months.
Rail motor services During the first few years of the 20th century the LB&SCR, in common with other railways, became concerned about losses on branch and short-distance passenger services, particularly in winter. The L&SWR and the LB&SCR boards decided to investigate the use of steam powered
railcars on the joint branch line between Fratton and East Southsea, in June 1903. The locomotive and carriage units were both built by the L&SWR, but one of the carriages was painted in the LB&SCR livery. The two vehicles had to be quickly withdrawn as they were found to be chronically underpowered, but were rebuilt with larger boilers and thereafter gave adequate service. However, their use did not stem the loss of traffic to the roads and in 1914 the branch was closed. Nevertheless, the LB&SCR directors asked the Chief Mechanical Engineer,
Robert Billinton, to investigate the use of steam or petrol
railcars on lightly used services. Billinton died in 1904, before examples could be acquired, but in 1905 his successor
Douglas Earle Marsh acquired two steam railcars from
Beyer, Peacock and Company and two petrol railcars from
Dick, Kerr & Co. These were compared with small steam locomotives of the Stroudley
A1 and
D1 classes fitted for "motor train" or "
push-pull" working. Neither type of railcar was successful, being inadequate to cope with traffic fluctuations between winter and summer, but the "motor trains" could be adapted by the addition or removal of extra coaches. As a result, the experiment provided a new lease of life for the Stroudley tank classes, which continued to be used on branch lines for many years after their withdrawal from suburban services. The
steam railcars were sold in 1919, and the petrol railcars were used for departmental (non-revenue-earning) purposes during the erection of the catenary for the
overhead electrification of the London suburban lines. During the experiments relating to railcars and
motor trains, the LB&SCR constructed unmanned halts, such as
Lyons Crossing Halt and
Littlehaven Halt on the
Arun Valley Line, in an attempt to increase passenger revenue.
Freight services Freight represented a relatively small part of the LB&SCR's finances during its first half century. Agricultural goods and general merchandise were carried, together with wine, foodstuffs and manufactured goods imported from France. During the 1870s the pattern of goods services slowly began to change, leading to rapid growth in the 1890s, 'caused by the transport of raw materials and finished products of entirely new industries such as petroleum, cement, brick and tile manufacture, forestry and biscuit making.' This resulted in the construction of 55 goods locomotives of the
C2 class There were no coal mines within LB&SCR territory, and so it had to pay substantially more for its fuel than most other companies. The bulk of its coal was brought in trains from Acton yard on the
Great Western Railway to
Three Bridges for redistribution, and the LB&SCR kept two goods locomotives at the GWR Westbourne Park Depot for this purpose. In 1898 there was a scheme to develop Deptford Wharf for the landing of coal by sea. The additional fuel costs were partially offset by the sale of shingle for rail ballast from Pevensey. The main London goods depot was at 'Willow Walk', part of the
Bricklayers Arms complex, where the LB&SCR established its facilities in 1849. These were enlarged in 1854 after it entered into an agreement with the
LC&DR to handle its goods traffic. Further extensions were built in 1865 and 1902. There were also freight handling facilities at
Battersea and
Deptford Wharves, and
New Cross in London and the railway constructed a
marshalling yard to the south of
Norwood Junction during the 1870s, extended in the early 1880s. Other freight handling facilities outside London were at:
Brighton (where there was a separate goods station at, adjacent to the passenger station), Eastbourne, Hastings, Littlehampton, Portsmouth, Newhaven, Seaford, and Three Bridges. ==Electrification==