[2] In July 1852 a public meeting took place in East Grinstead to discuss the setting-up of a railway company which would build a line to Three Bridges.

The EGR's directors were not willing to go to the expense of building a tunnel, and so it was agreed that the route of the line would be changed to deviate through what was to become Grange Road railway station.

Present were the company's directors, all prominent local businessmen, led by John Dorrien Magens (Chairman), George Head, William Stenning, Charles Tooke and Frederick Cayley Worsley.

The East Grinstead, Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells Railway (EGGTW) was incorporated by the 1862 act and its first directors were the Earl de la Warr, his son Lord West, C.B.

The locking apparatus at East Grinstead was still incomplete, two sidings had to be trapped, clocks were to be provided at all stations and Brambletye Crossing was to be equipped with ordinary field gates.

The single track extension of the Wealden Line from Uckfield to Groombridge was opened on 3 August 1868 and six trains began to run each day between Tunbridge Wells and Brighton.

It was remarked that fifteen years previously the company had been a profitable enterprise but, as a result of ruinous expenditure on useless lines, that was no longer the case.

It proved impossible to accommodate the L&EG in the existing East Grinstead station as the enlargements and modifications entailed would mean buying out the adjoining Stenning's timber yard, which the LBSCR refused to contemplate.

[2] From 1906 the services on the line began to be supplemented by new motorised carriages fitted with mechanically worked controls enabling them to be hauled or propelled by small tank locomotives.

Their introduction was an attempt by the LBSCR to reduce their ever-rising operating costs on the line; the first ran from East Grinstead to Three Bridges at 10:35, returning at 11:20 for the 12:30 working to Brighton.

It argued that traffic was too light to justify additional staff costs at stations and that, in any event, there was a half-hourly bus service as well as trains up to London via Oxted.

First, the East Grinstead-Groombridge section was too well-served often by lengthy trains, as a result of the need to service steam locomotives at the Tunbridge Wells West depot.

[citation needed] Passenger numbers were held back by the state of the trains which, as pointed out by the East Grinstead Observer, were as slow and as dirty as ever before, with "ill-lit, time-expired" rolling stock.

The new diesels prompted complaints from passengers who, although welcoming the extra seating capacity, objected to the lack of corridors and lavatory accommodation, as well as the large number of initial mechanical failures on the units.

[4] In March 1963 the Chairman of BR, Dr. Richard Beeching (who incidentally lived in East Grinstead) published a report entitled "The Reshaping of British Railways" which called for a mass programme of closures including the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells line.

[1] In support of the proposed closure, statistics were produced which showed that, among the passengers travelling daily from East Grinstead, on average 950 went to London, 300 to Three Bridges and 25 to Tunbridge Wells.

[2] Details of the proposed closure were published on 18 October when notices appeared at Rowfant, Grange Road, Forest Row, Hartfield and Withyham stations.

On 13 July 1964 Beeching's own 18:10 service from Victoria to East Grinstead had to be diverted via Three Bridges (as did the 17:49 Victoria–Tunbridge Wells) as a result of a train failure at Sanderstead, proving that the condemned line did in fact have its uses.

Although Grange Road and Forest Row were both bringing in £5,000 per annum and could be maintained, the other stations (Rowfant, Hartfield and Withyham) could sensibly have been closed as the traffic there was practically nil.

After a delay of more than eighteen months, the Labour Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle, announced in September 1966 that the line from Three Bridges to Groombridge would close.

Despite the outrage provoked by this decision, she refused to meet with a deputation from East Grinstead Urban District Council which was told that it was impossible for the Minister to withdraw her irrevocable consent to closure.

No reference was made to the objections raised at the public enquiry, nor to the construction of 3000 houses near Crawley Down or the growing traffic congestion in East Grinstead.

Some additional bus services were laid on for Monday-Friday peak periods, notably route 438a calling at East Grinstead, Felbridge, Crawley Down and Three Bridges.

[2] The short spur line between Ashurst Jn and Groombridge carried a couple of passenger trains per day between Oxted and Tunbridge Wells until closure in January 1969.

This was the fate of Grange Road, the site of which is now covered by shops and housing,[5] and by Forest Row which was sold to a club for £4,000, and is now part of a light industrial development.

This required the removal of the locomotive shed which was demolished in 1976 despite the efforts of the East Grinstead Society which had attempted to raise funds for its preservation as a drama and arts workshop.

The Secretary of State for Transport rubber stamped the decision and passenger services ceased from 6 July 1985 and the section from Grove Jn to Tunbridge Wells West was closed completely.

[15] The campaign received a setback in the late 1980s when Tunbridge Wells Borough Council granted planning permission for a supermarket on the site of the now derelict goods yard.

[15][16] In 2007 Spa Valley Railway marked the tenth anniversary of the re-opening of the line by transforming Groombridge into a busy interchange station with trains arriving or departing every 15 minutes.

[18] When the Mid Sussex District Council carried out a preliminary study before putting together an Area Action Plan, it conducted an enquiry into public transport which threw up some interesting results.