Oxted Line

Oxted Line
The Oxted Line with other railway lines in South London, Kent and parts of East Sussex and Surrey.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London South East England Surrey Kent East Sussex
Termini	London Victoria station / London Bridge station East Grinstead / Uckfield
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 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 in southern England and part of the Southern franchise. The railway splits into two branches towards the south and has direct trains throughout to London termini.

It was opened jointly by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the South Eastern Railway in the 19th century.

The line emerges from, and operates in between services running along, the northern section of the London to Brighton main line, which has two diverging northern branches. The divergence is at South Croydon in Greater London. At Hurst Green adjoining Oxted in Surrey, having passed under the North Downs in tunnel it splits, one branch terminating at East Grinstead, the other at Uckfield, market towns in Sussex.

History

Conception

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:

• to Edenbridge junction, allowing connection to the SER's Redhill to Tonbridge Line
• to East Grinstead, owned by the LB&SCR but jointly operated with the SER
• to Eridge, owned by the LB&SCR with junctions with the Wealden Line, the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line, and the Cuckoo Line

Part-electrification

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

Services

The standard service on the line is two trains per hour from London Victoria to East Grinstead and one train per hour from London Bridge to Uckfield.

Additional services operate on both branches at peak times.

On Sundays, the London Bridge to Uckfield service runs only between Oxted and Uckfield.

Connections with Heritage Railways

The two branches of the line connect with different heritage railways directly:

• the Spa Valley Railway has extended its route from Groombridge to Eridge, where it has restored the disused down island platform and commenced services on 25 March 2011.
• the Bluebell Railway has extended to East Grinstead, where it has built a new single-platform station which interchanges with the National Rail station. Through running to Network Rail started in March 2010, when GBRf was contracted to run occasional trains carrying 1,000 tons of excavated material from the Bluebell's northern extension to a disposal site at Calvert, Buckinghamshire.^[2] Passenger services started on 23 March 2013.

Former other connections and sub-branches

One branch formerly had three sub-branches:

• from East Grinstead to:
  • Haywards Heath
  • Lewes, the northernmost section of which is preserved as the Bluebell Railway operated by steam and classic trains.
  • Tunbridge Wells. All three termini towns are served by other lines.
• Ashurst and Eridge on the Uckfield branch were junctions for Tunbridge Wells, Kent and East Grinstead, West Sussex which were linked directly by the 'Spa Valley Railway', which used part of the route.
• Eridge and Crowborough were until 1965 a junction for Cuckoo Line to Eastbourne.

A short stretch of one geographical sub-branch at Isfield (on what was operated as the most direct route, i.e. on some measures a 'main line' between Uckfield and Lewes) is preserved as the Lavender Line.

Between Hurst Green and Lingfield (in Surrey) was a connection with the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. Until 1983 At Selsdon in Greater London was a junction with the Woodside and South Croydon Joint line to Elmers End.

Future

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

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

References

1. 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

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