Oxted Line

Oxted Line

The Oxted Line with other railway lines in South London, Surrey, Kent and East Sussex.
Overview
Type Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System National Rail
Status Operational
Locale Greater London
South East England
Surrey
Kent
East Sussex
Operation
Opened 1884
Owner Network Rail
Operator(s) Southern
Depot(s) Selhurst
Rolling stock British Rail Class 171 "Turbostar"
British Rail Class 377 "Electrostar"
Technical
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Oxted Line

Legend
Brighton Main Line
South Croydon
Woodside and
South Croydon Railway

Brighton Main Line
Selsdon(closed 1983)
Sanderstead
Authorised line
to Orpington

(not built)
Purley Downs
Golf Club Halt

(1914−1927)
Riddlesdown
Riddlesdown Tunnel
837 yards (765 m)
Riddlesdown Viaduct
Upper Warlingham
Woldingham Viaduct
Woldingham
Oxted Tunnel
M25 motorway crossing
2,266 yards (2,072 m)
Oxted
Oxted Viaduct
Limpsfield Tunnel
565 yards (517 m)
Hurst Green
Hurst Green Halt(closed 1961)
Hurst Green Junction
Monks Lane Halt(1907−1939)
Crowhurst Spur
(closed 1970s)
Edenbridge Tunnel
319 yards (292 m)

to Redhill

to Tonbridge
Lingfield
Edenbridge Town
Hever
Dormans
Mark Beech Tunnel
1,341 yards (1,226 m)
Cowden
Ashurst
East Grinstead High Level

Ashurst Junction
East Grinstead Low Level

to Three Bridges
National Rail
Bluebell Railway

boundary

Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells
(Spa Valley Railway)

East Grinstead (Bluebell Ry)
Groombridge Junction

Birchden Junction (removed)
to Sheffield Park
SVR on former down line
Eridge (NR and SVR)
Redgate Mill Junction
Cuckoo Line
towards Eastbourne
Crowborough
Buxted
Uckfield
Uckfield(original site)
Wealden Line
A 1910 Railway Clearing House map of the interaction of the Oxted Line and the Redhill to Tonbridge Line.

The Oxted Line is a railway line in southern England, 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:

At Selsdon, north of Sanderstead there was until 1983 a junction with the Woodside and South Croydon Joint line to Elmers End. Between Hurst Green and Lingfield there was a connection with the Redhill to Tonbridge Line.

History

A line was proposed in 1864 from Croydon to Tunbridge Wells via Oxted by a group of former LB&SCR directors. Their proposal for the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway (S&SJR) was to have the scheme underwritten and then operated by the LB&SCR.[1]

However, the South Eastern Railway (SER) saw the S&SJR, and particularly the involvement of the LB&SCR chairman Leo Schuster, as a significant incursion into its territory. In addition to creating a rival to its own line to Tunbridge Wells, the SER saw the LB&SCR's direct involvement as contravening an 1849 agreement between the two companies.[1] In retaliation, the SER put forward proposals for a 'London, Lewes and Brighton' railway together with the London Chatham and Dover Railway.[1] As a result of these difficulties and the financial crisis of 1866-7, the LB&SCR signed a new agreement with the SER in which it withdrew support for the S&SJR, and the SER abandoned its scheme. Work on the S&SJR immediately ceased, but the holding company remained in existence until 1869, when it was merged with the LB&SCR and then closed.[1]

On 10 March 1884, the LB&SCR and the SER formed a joint venture company, the Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead Railway. Surveyed and engineered by the LB&SCR's Chief Engineer Frederick Banister, the proposed route in part used trackbed constructed for but never used by the S&SJR.[1] The line was jointly owned and operated until Hurst Green, when it split into three:

The East Grinstead branch was electrified in 1987 at 750 V DC third rail. The Uckfield branch is not electrified, and is worked by Class 171 diesel multiple units, which replaced Class 205 and Class 207 DEMUs.

Future

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

A £140,000, six-month study was commissioned by the East Sussex County Council and Network Rail looking into the possibility of rebuilding the line between Uckfield and Lewes. This was set up by the Wealden Line Campaign Group.[3] On 23 July 2008 the Central Rail Corridor Board (a joint group of local councils and stakeholders) study, commissioned by Network Rail, reported that there was not a forecast viable economic case for reopening, citing a £141 million cost and a low anticipated benefit to cost ratio (BCR) of 0.64 to 0.79 when a BCR of 1.5 is the minimum needed to make a scheme finance-able. In short a major national tourist drive would be required to provide a rapid return on investment.[4]

Brighton Main Line 2[5][6]

The Wealden Line Campaign Group has, in addition to campaigning for the reopening of a line between Uckfield and Lewes, proposed an extension north from Sanderstead to Elmers End. The proposal as a whole would have new platforms at Brighton and 5 miles (8.0 km) of the East Coastway Line upgraded. The line would branch off the East Coastway after Falmer. A new Ashcombe tunnel would be bored after crossing the A27 before crossing the Keymer Junction (Wivelsfield) to Lewes line. The line 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 a maximum speed limit of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h). 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 in operation with through services to Brighton railway station from Royal Tunbridge Wells. The line between Brighton and Oxted/Tunbridge Wells would be electrified with overhead wiring (25 kV AC).[7]

Instead of carrying on to the Brighton Main Line, the line would branch off at Sanderstead and reopen the former line, but Croydon Tramlink has taken over the section between Coombe Road and Elmers End. The line would join the Hayes Line at Elmers End possibly alongside the proposed Bakerloo line extension to Hayes 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 off after Whitechapel to London Liverpool Street or onto a new line to Stansted Airport via Canary Wharf and Stratford. 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, and provide more capacity between London and Brighton.

See also

Wealden Line

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Turner, John Howard (1978). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 2 Establishment and Growth. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1198-8.
  2. ↑ White, Chris (Winter 2009). "Viaduct work—and tip material to be removed by rail". Bluebell News (Sussex, England: Bluebell Railway) 51 (4): 24–25.
  3. ↑ "Railway reopening study approved" (Press release). BBC News. 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  4. ↑ The full report by Network Rail, at East Sussex CC - 23 July 2008
  5. ↑ ['Could a second main line offer Brighton a brighter future?' Rail Magazine Issue 642, 21 April-4 May 2010, Page36-37]
  6. ↑ Brighton Main Line 2 website
  7. ↑ BML 2 route plans

External links

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