A half hourly southern service along the Arun valley route runs from Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis to London Victoria.

[2] Mocatta's plans for the station indicate that it was originally going to be known as "Crawley"[3] but according to The London and Brighton railway guide, of 1841 and the 1846 timetable it was named "Three Bridges" from the time it was opened.

[6] At the same time the practice of using "slip coaches" for East Grinstead at Three Bridges from expresses bound for the south coast was abandoned by the Southern Railway.

On 12 April 1858 an engine collided with passenger carriages, and on 18 October 1863 an excursion train hit the buffer stops.

[9] On 10 January 1923, shunter Frederick Harmer aged 23, was at work when he slipped from boarding that was covering signal wires.

This was closed in 1909 to make way for the enlargement of the station and a new depot was established in the fork between the Brighton and Horsham lines in 1911, which remained open until June 1964.

[13] In the early 2000s, Virgin CrossCountry built a depot at Three Bridges operated by English Welsh and Scottish Railway to service its Class 220 Voyagers.

[14] It closed following CrossCountry withdrawing its Gatwick and Brighton services in December 2008 and was subsequently demolished and replaced with EMU stabling sidings.

[15] In 2010 Network Rail selected Three Bridges as its preferred site for a signalling centre for trains operating in the southeast of England, being central to the London, Brighton, and future Thameslink services, and with no major negative planning issues.

[16] A 1.7 ha (4.2-acre) site 0.5 mi (0.80 km) south of Three Bridges station was selected, located in the "fork" between the Arun Valley Line and Brighton Main Line (51°06′44″N 0°09′47″W / 51.1123°N 0.1631°W / 51.1123; -0.1631 (Three Bridges railway operating centre)); the centre was located east of a DB Schenker rail depot, and east of depot facilities for the Thameslink rolling stock programme trains, which was under planning development at the same time.

Besides a booking hall, the station has a coffee shop and a branch of Greggs, as well as toilets and accessibility lifts to platforms.