Merstham railway station

Merstham railway station is in Merstham, Surrey, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line, 20 miles 59 chains (33.4 km) measured from London Charing Cross, and train services are currently provided by Southern, who manage the station, and Thameslink.

Merstham
Merstham
Location of Merstham in Surrey
LocationMerstham
Local authorityReigate and Banstead
Grid referenceTQ291532
Managed bySouthern
Station codeMHM
DfT categoryD
Number of platforms2
AccessibleYes[1]
Fare zoneD
National Rail annual entry and exit
2015–16 0.728 million[2]
2016–17 0.639 million[2]
2017–18 0.663 million[2]
2018–19 0.765 million[2]
2019–20 0.820 million[2]
Key dates
1844Opened
Other information
External links
WGS84
 London transport portal
A 1905 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Merstham railway station.

History

Merstham was on a stretch of line between Croydon and Redhill which Parliament insisted should be shared by the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) route to Brighton, and the South Eastern Railway (SER) route to Dover. As a result, there have been two railway stations at Merstham.

London and Brighton Railway station

The original station at was located 3/4 mile south of the current station. It was opened by the L&BR on 1 December 1841, and from 1842 it was also used by SER and was the point at which travellers between the two railways exchanged trains. The section of line between Coulsdon and Redhill was transferred to SER operation, and the new owners decided to close Merstham station on 1 October 1843, thereby forcing passengers wishing to change trains to walk between the two stations at Redhill. This was a tactic to force the L&BR to share the new SER Reigate station at Redhill.[3] Once the L&BR had given way and closed their existing station at Reigate Road, Redhill, the SER opened a new station at Merstham on the present site.

South Eastern Railway station

This station was opened 4 October 1844. The up side booking office (badly damaged by fire in the late 1980s and later rebuilt) and footbridge date from a 1905 rebuilding.

Despite being on the Brighton line, this station, along with Coulsdon South and Redhill, was owned by the South Eastern Railway (later South Eastern & Chatham Railway), and was not used by L&BR (later London Brighton and South Coast Railway trains. It was not until the creation of the Southern Railway in 1923 that trains from the Brighton line called at the station. It is 20 miles 59 chains (33.4 km) from Charing Cross, and has two platforms each long enough for a 12-coach train.[4]

A side effect of the privatisation of the UK rail network in the last 15 years has been the re-emergence of historic names for the new Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and the 'modern' Southeastern (and its Connex SE and South Eastern predecessors) served Merstham until 2008 with a London Bridge/Merstham/Redhill/Tonbridge route service (which at different times in its life extended beyond Tonbridge) – the 'southeastern' logo that was on display at the station entrance has been removed since.

Services

Services at Merstham are opetated by Southern and Thameslink using Class 377 and Class 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[5]

On Sundays, the service between London and Reigate reduces to hourly. In addition, the Peterborough to Horsham service also reduces to hourly and northbound, runs only as far as London Bridge.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Southern
Thameslink

Oyster extension

As of January 2016, Oyster and contactless payment cards can be used from this station.[6]

References
  1. "Merstham (MHM)". National Rail Enquiries. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  2. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  3. Turner, John Howard (1977). The London Brighton and South Coast Railway 1 Origins and Formation. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-0275-X. p.165, 184.
  4. Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 15A. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.
  5. "Timetable 20: Reigate and Redhill to London" (PDF). Southern, December 2019.
  6. "Contactless payments and Oyster to make travel to and from Gatwick Airport seamless : Southern". www.southernrailway.com. Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
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