Oxted railway station

Oxted
View of Oxted Station in 2004. Services shown are in both Southern and Connex South Central livery.
Location
Place	Oxted
Local authority	Tandridge
Operations
Station code	OXT
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	1.236 million
2005/06 *	1.268 million
2006/07 *	1.310 million
2007/08 *	1.851 million
2008/09 *	1.430 million
2009/10 *	1.431 million
History
2011	Ticket barriers installed
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Oxted from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

A 1910 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Oxted.

Oxted railway station is a relatively busy interchange station and terminus located in Surrey, in the South East region of England. At present, all train services are provided by Southern. The station is the busiest suburban station on the Oxted Line and is a terminus for some services on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line. Trains depart to London Victoria via Clapham Junction, London Bridge via East Croydon Station, East Grinstead and Uckfield in East Sussex via Hurst Green.

History

Oxted was built as a joint London, Brighton and South Coast Railway/South Eastern Railway station when the South Croydon to East Grinstead line opened on 10 March 1884. The three platforms are connected by a subway which runs under the track. In addition, a lift is provided for entry to Platforms 2/3. There are tunnels at each end of the station:

• Oxted Tunnel 1 mile 23 chains (2.07 km)^[1] at the London end
• Limpsfield Tunnel 551 yard (501 m) at the country end

In 1951 the station had a train every thirteen minutes of the day, services running to Victoria and London Bridge in the up direction and to Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne and Brighton in the down. Locomotives using the station on an average weekday would be of the following classes: BR4 2-6-4T's (14), C2X 0-6-0 (2), H 0-4-4T (12), L 4-4-0 (1), LM2 2-6-2T (5), LM4 2-6-4T (38), N 2-6-0 (2), Q 0-6-0 (8), U 2-6-0 (1) and U1 2-6-0 (2). In addition, diesel 10800 was a regular visitor to the station four times a day between 1952 and 1954.^{[citation needed]}

The station was the scene of a bomb attempt by suffragettes in 1913. A similar device (containing some pieces of metal and a watch in addition to the explosive charge) was planted at the Bank of England on 13 April 1913, which was successfully defused.^[2]

Facilities

On the London-bound platform is a manned ticket office (staffed daily till late) and two standard quick-pay self-service passenger-operated ticket machine in Southern branding is located outside the station on the London-bound side and at the entrance to the underpass on Platforms 2 and 3 side (Uckfield/East Grinstead bound.) The station is and has remained as the biggest served solely by Southern on the line and staffed 17 hours a day. The Station accommodates a cafe, refurbished toilets, two waiting rooms and a line control centre in a large concourse.

All of the platforms are linked by a subway which also links the two main streets in Oxted together as well as the local supermarket and the town's leisure complex.

There is an underground car park located under both the station and the supermarket.

Line Terminus

The station acts as a terminus for the Uckfield Branch of the Oxted Line and trains use the siding on platform three on a regular basis after termination for both train maintenance and cleaning. The station also houses the line signal control box which was erected in 2000 replacing the previous ancient operative wooden structure, the New Signal Box around when the Cowden Rail Collision of October 1994 occurred.

The Station was also the first station and terminus on the Southern Network to receive 2 fully DDA compliant ticket windows which just at the press of a button, will move down to accommodate easy use by wheelchair users. The Station is also linked to the Southern Control Center in Croydon, by two help points (one on each platform) where Passengers can receive help 24 hours a day externally.

Improvements

Recently^[when?], the station has been refurbished a new lift installed. The station should shortly receive both a deep clean and internal rezoning as part of network-wide improvements.

As of May 2010, Platform 1 and 2 are being lengthened by Balfour Beatty to take 12 car trains scheduled to start running from December 2011.

During January 2011, Southern installed a number of ticket gates on the Main Concourse as well as the exit and indoor area located in between platforms two and three. Gateline staff operate at the station whenever services are in operation.

Services

As of October 2011^[update] the typical off-peak service is:

• 2 trains per hour (tph) to London Victoria from East Grinstead
• 1 tph to London Bridge from Uckfield
• 2 tph to East Grinstead from London Victoria
• 1 tph to Uckfield from London Bridge

Sunday and some peak-hour services to Uckfield start from this station. All services are currently operated by Southern.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Woldingham		Southern Oxted Line		Hurst Green

Bus services

Local bus services are provided by Southdown PSV and occasionally London General on the behalf of Surrey County Council. The nearest bus stops are adjacent to the London Bound Platforms and near to the subway on Station Road East. Rail Replacement Services operated by MetroBus stop directly outside the Main Concourse.

Destinations include: Westerham, Redhill, East Grinstead and Caterham.

References

1. ^ McDermott, Frederick (1887). The Life and Work of Joseph Firbank, Railway Contractor. London: Longmans Green (Reprinted 2007, Kessinger). p. 117. ISBN 1432677489. 
2. ^ "Suffragettes. Bomb and the Bank of England.". The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929) (Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia): p. 7. 16 April 1913. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59253869. Retrieved 26 October 2011. 

External links

• Train times and station information for Oxted railway station from National Rail

Coordinates: 51°15′29″N 0°00′18″W / 51.258°N 0.005°W / 51.258; -0.005