Brighton railway station is the principal station serving the city of Brighton in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. It is the southern terminus of the Brighton Main Line, the western terminus of the East Coastway Line and the eastern terminus of the West Coastway Line. It is 50 miles 49 chains (50.61 miles, 81.45 km) from London Bridge via Redhill.

The station was built by the London & Brighton Railway in 1840–41, initially only connecting Brighton to Shoreham-by-Sea, westwards along the coast, in May 1840. In September 1841, it was connected inland to Haywards Heath and London Bridge via the new Clayton Tunnel; then in 1846 to the county town of Lewes to the east via the London Road Viaduct. The railway became the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1846 following mergers with other railways with lines between Portsmouth and Hastings.

With 14.5 million passenger entries and exits in 2023-24, Brighton is the busiest station in East Sussex, the second busiest in South East England, and the seventh-busiest station in the country outside London.

The London & Brighton Railway (L&BR) built a passenger station, goods station, locomotive depot and railway works on a difficult site on the northern edge of Brighton. This site was 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from, and 70 feet (21 m) above the sea shore, and had involved considerable excavation work to create a reasonable gradient from Patcham Tunnel.

The passenger station was a three-storey building in an Italianate style, designed by David Mocatta in 1839–40 which incorporated the head office of the railway company. (This building still stands but has been largely obscured by later additions.) The station is said to have many similarities to the Nine Elms railway station of the London and Southampton Railway (1838) designed by Sir William Tite. Baker & Son were paid £9766 15s for the station building between May and August 1841. The platform accommodation was built by John Urpeth Rastrick and consisted of four pitched roofs each 250 ft (76 m) long. It opened for trains to Shoreham on 12 May 1840, and to London on 21 September 1841.

The station site was extended for the opening of the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway on 8 June 1846 (which had been purchased by the L&BR in 1845). In July 1846, the L&BR merged with other railways to form the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway.

Further extensions to the station occurred during the mid-19th century but only a limited number of additional platforms could be added because of the awkward sloping site. By the late 1870s the facilities were inadequate for the growing volume of traffic and so the existing platforms were lengthened to be able to accommodate two trains, and the three separate roofs were replaced by an overall roof during 1882/1883.

The station has an impressive large double-spanned curved glass and iron roof covering all of the platforms, which was substantially renovated in 1999 and 2000.