Oxted Line

The Oxted Line is a railway line in southern England. It was originally operated jointly by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the South Eastern Railway. It is now part of the Southern franchise.

The line diverges from the London to Brighton main line at South Croydon. At Hurst Green it splits, one branch terminating at East Grinstead, the other at Uckfield.

Both branches formerly continued further:

• from East Grinstead trains continued to Haywards Heath, Lewes or Tunbridge Wells. Part of the route south of East Grinstead is preserved as the Bluebell Line.
• Ashurst and Eridge on the Uckfield line were junctions for Tunbridge Wells (see the Spa Valley Railway below), and Eridge also for Eastbourne.
• from Uckfield trains continued to Lewes and Brighton. A short stretch at Isfield (between Uckfield and Lewes) is preserved as the Lavender Line.

North of Sanderstead, at the former Selsdon railway station, there was until 1983 a connection with the former Woodside and South Croydon Joint line to Elmers End. Between Hurst Green and Lingfield there was a connection with the Redhill to Tonbridge Line.

The line between Croydon and East Grinstead was opened as the Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead Railway (a joint venture between the LBSCR and the SER) on 10 March 1884. In part it used trackbed constructed for, but never used by, the abortive Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway in the 1860s.

The East Grinstead branch was electrified in 1987 (750v DC third rail). The Uckfield branch is not electrified, and is worked by Class 171 diesel multiple units (which replaced the Class 205 and Class 207 DEMUs previously in use on the line).

Future

The two branches of the Oxted Line connect with different heritage railways, both of which have plans to extend their routes to allow interchange with the national network:

• Spa Valley Railway - The Spa Valley Railway has worked to extend its route from its current terminus at Groombridge to Birchden Junction, and from there to Eridge, where they have restored the disused island platform and commenced services on 25 March 2011.
• Bluebell Railway - The Bluebell Railway is currently clearing and preparing the existing trackbed to allow its route to be extended to East Grinstead, where it has built a new single platform station which will interchange with the existing National Rail station. Through running to Network Rail started in March 2010, when GBRf contracted to run occasional trains carrying 1000 tons of excavated material from the Blubell's northern extension to a disposal site at Calvert, Buckinghamshire.^[1]

A £140,000, six-month study has been approved by the council and Network Rail looking into the possibility of rebuilding the line, as part of the National Rail Network, between Uckfield and Lewes. This was set up by the Wealden Line Campaign Group.^[2] On 23 July 2008 the Central Rail Corridor Board (a joint group of local councils and stakeholders) commissioned study by Network Rail reported that there was not an economic case for reopening, citing a £141 million cost and a low "Benefit To Cost ratio" of 0.64 to 0.79 when a BCR of 1.5 is the minimum needed to make a scheme viable.^[3]

Brighton Main Line 2 ^[4][5]

The Wealden Line Campaign Group have in addition to campaigning for the reopening a line between Uckfield to Lewes line have proposed an extension north from Sanderstead to Elmers End . The proposal as a whole would have new platforms at Brighton and five miles of the East Coastway Line upgraded. Then the line would branch off the East Coastway after Falmer. A new tunnel (called Ashcombe) would be bored after crossing the A27 before crossing the Keymer Junction (Wivelsfield) to Lewes line. The line then would take back the preserved Lavender Line at Isfield. No stations would be reopened between Lewes and Uckfield and all level crossings would be closed. A new station at Uckfield south of the current one would allow 12-carriage trains. The line to Eridge would be double-tracked and electrified (with third rail with a maximum speed limit of 90 mph. New passing loops at Eridge would allow fast trains to overtake slower stopping services. The proposal also includes bringing the Eridge to Tunbridge Wells line back into National Rail with through services to Brighton from Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Instead of carrying on to the Brighton Main Line, the line would branch off at Sanderstead and reopen the former railway line, but there is a problem as Croydon Tramlink has taken over the section between Elmers End and Addiscombe. The line would then join the Hayes Line at Elmers End station and then run to London Bridge, London Charing Cross and possibly on to the Thameslink network. There is also a suggestion for some trains to run on the East London Line and branch of after Whitechapel to London Liverpool Street. The whole project could see as little as one building demolished.

The project would have trains diverted away from bottlenecks at East Croydon and Windmill Bridge junction, electric trains on the Uckfield branch instead of Class 171 diesel trains and more capacity between London and Brighton.

See also

Wealden Line

Further reading

• Gould, David (2003). The Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead Railway. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-598-5. 

References

External links

• The Woodside & South Croydon Railway.
• Spa Valley Railway
• Brighton Main Line 2 website