London, Brighton and South Coast Railway

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) was a major British railway company formed in 1846 through the amalgamation of five smaller railways, operating the most direct routes from London to the south coast resorts of Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, as well as the ports of Newhaven and Shoreham-by-Sea. Its network formed a triangle with London at the apex and the Sussex coastline as its base, reaching across much of Surrey, and by the late nineteenth century it had built the largest suburban rail network of any British railway operating in the London area. At its greatest extent in 1919 the company operated more than 457 miles of route and over 1,260 miles of track, drawing much of its revenue from commuter season tickets between Brighton and London. The LB&SCR ceased independent operation on December 31, 1922, when it was merged into the newly formed Southern Railway.