Dorking railway station

Dorking
Location
Place	Dorking
Local authority	District of Mole Valley
Grid reference	TQ170504
Operations
Station code	DKG
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	1.187 million
– Interchange	75,499
2011/12	1.300 million
– Interchange	0.105 million
2012/13	1.234 million
– Interchange	0.113 million
2013/14	1.260 million
– Interchange	0.119 million
2014/15	1.292 million
– Interchange	0.132 million
History
11 March 1867 1 May 1867 27 July 1887 1 March 1888 2 February 1901 9 July 1923 12 July 1925 3 March 1929 15 May 1938 3 July 1938 January 1964 7 November 1966 6 May 1968 23 August 1982	Opened (trains to Leatherhead) Opened (trains to Horsham) Betchworth Tunnel collapse Betchworth Tunnel reopened Queen Victoria's funeral train runs through Dorking Renamed "Dorking North" First electric trains to Waterloo First electric trains to London Bridge New signal box opens Electric trains to Victoria, Horsham and Portsmouth Final steam services withdrawn Goods yard closed Renamed "Dorking" New station building opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Dorking from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Dorking railway station is one of three railway stations that serve the town of Dorking in Surrey, England. The station is within walking distance of Dorking Deepdene station and interchange on a through ticket is permitted. Dorking West and Dorking (Deepdene) are on the North Downs Line.

There are two trains per hour towards London Waterloo, two towards London Victoria and an hourly service to Horsham (Monday to Saturday off-peak). South West Trains services to London Waterloo typically use Platform 2. Southern services to Horsham generally depart from platform 3.

The station, previously called Dorking North, was rebuilt in the 1980s and is now part of the office block which houses the headquarters of Biwater.

Ticket barriers were installed in 2010.

Construction

The Mole Gap between Dorking and Leatherhead is one of the few natural breaches in the North Downs and its potential as a rail corridor was realised as early as 1830 when a line linking London to Brighton was proposed. In 1845-6, the "Direct London and Portsmouth Railway" was authorised by parliament to run south from Epsom to Dorking on to Godalming, Havant and Portsmouth. The scheme failed to attract sufficient investment and was dropped in favour of the Woking, Guildford and Havant route from London Waterloo.

The first railway line to link Dorking with London was the independently promoted "Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway" proposed in 1845-6, authorised by Acts of Parliament in 1846 and 1847. This became the line we know today as the North Downs Line.

By 1859 the LBSCR and LSWR had built a joint line to Leatherhead from Epsom where their tracks separated (the former heading for London Bridge the latter for London Waterloo. An independent Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway was set up and promoted by interested local parties (principally from Horsham) to link the three towns. The railway was approved by Act of Parliament in July 1862, but only from a junction with the North Downs Line, 100 yards (91 m) to the east of Dorking Deepdene, to the Arun Valley Line at Horsham.

A year later in July 1863 LBSCR secured authority to build the line from its station at Leatherhead to make a connection with the line from Horsham. The line to Leatherhead was opened on 11 March 1867, however the connection with the line from Horsham was not made until 1 May 1867. Initially services ran from London Bridge to Brighton via Sutton and Steyning four times per day in each direction.

Electrification

The Southern Railway, formed in 1923, began an extensive programme of electrification of their suburban lines. The line from Waterloo to Dorking was electrified using the 660V third rail system in 1925 and regular half-hourly semi-fast services were introduced on 12 July 1925 to run seven days per week. The 22.5 mi (36.2 km) journey to Waterloo originally took 45 minutes, although this was considerably lengthened when trains began to stop at all stations shortly afterwards. An additional hourly electric service to London Bridge via Mitcham Junction and Tulse Hill began on 3 March 1929; the 25 mi (40 km) journey took 53 minutes.

The mid-Sussex electrification of 1938 resulted in the express steam services from Portsmouth and Bognor Regis being replaced by electric services which were routed through Dorking, calling at Sutton and Victoria only. These gave commuters from Dorking their fastest ever link to Victoria (34 minutes during peak hours). In the timetable change of May 1978 the mid-Sussex express services were routed via Gatwick Airport and the off-peak service to Dorking was reduced to two semi-fast services from Victoria per hour, with services to Horsham running every two hours. Now the average journey time to London termini takes a passenger 55 minutes.

The service to Horsham was neglected for some years during the 1980s with a shuttle service between Dorking and Horsham operating every two hours at off peak times. The service now provided is one train an hour through from London to Horsham, (headcode 84). The off peak service of two trains from London Bridge to Horsham via Sutton and Dorking ran for a number of years from about 1985 but had ceased by 2000. The former Horsham to Waterloo via Dorking North trains (headcode 15) ceased as early as 1980.

Signal box

The resignalling scheme of 1938 introduced three aspect colour signals to replace the original semaphore signals. A new signal box was constructed and opened on 15 May 1938. It is one of many built in the Odeon style by the Southern Railway during the 1930s. The original frame was an A2 type Westinghouse with 44 levers. The box controls the line from Box Hill & Westhumble to Warnham.

Services

Typical journey times

Destination	Platform	Journey time	Frequency	Operator
Leatherhead	1, 2 or 3	7 minutes	4 tph	Southern and South West Trains
Epsom	1, 2 or 3	14 minutes	4 tph	Southern and South West Trains
Worcester Park	2	22 minutes	2 tph	South West Trains
Sutton	1 or 3	26 minutes	2 tph	Southern
Wimbledon	2	33 minutes	2 tph	South West Trains
Clapham Junction	1, 2 or 3	40 minutes	4 tph	Southern and South West Trains
London Victoria	1 or 3	54 minutes	2 tph	Southern
London Waterloo	2	50 minutes	2 tph	South West Trains
Holmwood	3	6 minutes	1 tph	Southern
Horsham	3	21 minutes	1 tph	Southern

In common with the 16 hourly off-peak closer commuter services to/from London Waterloo calling at Earlsfield railway station and all local London stations all managed by South West Trains,^[1] trains must stop at every intermediate station. There are no fast services available to mid distance destinations, which gives overcapacity towards the suburban terminus (Dorking) due to the longer journey time and overcrowding during the inner city phase of journeys.^[2] This situation can be contrasted to certain other routes to destinations just outside Greater London in certain other directions. ^[3]

References

1. Namely:
   
   • 4tph to Guildford (2 via Cobham and 2 via Epsom) (ie excluding the fastest Portsmouth service)
   • 2tph to Chessington South
   • 2tph to Dorking
   • 2tph to Hampton Court
   • 2tph to Shepperton
   • 2tph to Woking
   • 2tph to Waterloo on thh Kingston Loop
2. "10-car SWT hangs in balance". Modern Railways (London): p. 52. December 2010.
3. e.g. New Southern Railway's Tonbridge, Reigate and East Grinstead services which until leaving London only call at Clapham Junction and at East Croydon.

External links

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

Coordinates: 51°14′28″N 0°19′26″W / 51.241°N 0.324°W