Sutton railway station (London) explained

Sutton
Manager:Southern
Fare Zone:5
Locale:Sutton
Borough:London Borough of Sutton
Symbol:rail
Years1:10 May 1847
Years2:22 May 1865
Years3:1 October 1868
Years4:5 January 1930
Events1:Opened (LB&SCR)
Events2:Start (Epsom Downs line)
Events3:Start (Mitcham Junction line)
Events4:Start (Wimbledon line)
Platforms:4
Railexits0405:4.716
Railexits0506: 4.750
Railexits0607: 6.042
Railexits0708: 6.411
Railexits0809: 6.059
Railexits0910: 5.687
Railexits1011: 5.769
Railexits1112: 6.065
Railexits1213: 6.353
Railexits1314: 6.607
Railexits1415: 6.779
Railexits1516: 7.111
Railexits1617: 6.526
Railexits1718: 6.362 -->
Railexits1819: 6.488
Railexits1920: 6.475
Railexits2021: 1.801
Railexits2122: 3.692
Railexits2223: 4.340
Railint1213: 0.625
Railint1314: 0.653
Railint1415: 0.644
Railint1516: 0.649
Railint1617: 0.533
Railint1718: 0.522 -->
Railint1819: 0.600
Railint1920: 0.629
Railint2021: 0.153
Railint2122: 0.336
Railint2223: 0.359
Railcode:SUO
Dft Category:C2
Access:yes
Coordinates:51.3601°N -0.1903°W

Sutton railway station (sometimes referred to as Sutton (Surrey) on tickets and timetables) is in the London Borough of Sutton in South London and is the main station serving the town of Sutton. It is served by Southern and Thameslink trains, and lies in Travelcard Zone 5, down the line from,[1] measured via Forest Hill.[2]

History

Sutton station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) on 10 May 1847, when the railway opened its line from West Croydon to Epsom. A branch to Epsom Downs was opened on 22 May 1865, followed by a line to Mitcham Junction on 1 October 1868. The final change to the station came when the branch to Wimbledon opened on 5 January 1930.

Until the early 1980s, it was possible to catch a direct express train to the coast from Sutton to Bognor Regis, Chichester or Portsmouth. Since the mid-1980s, these express services have been routed via East Croydon in order to serve Gatwick Airport; passengers from Sutton for the south coast now have to change at Horsham, or alternatively travel to West Croydon station and walk, take the bus or use Croydon's Tramlink service to reach East Croydon station to continue from there.

Today, travel to London Victoria takes just over 25 minutes on the direct route via and .

Layout

The four platforms at Sutton station are numbered 1 to 4 from north to south. Platforms 1 and 2 are on the lines to Wimbledon, Epsom, Leatherhead, Dorking, and Horsham. Platforms 3 and 4 are on the Epsom Downs Line, which becomes single-track about 0.5miles south of the station. Platforms 1 and 3 are used by services from outer termini to Central London. Trains from Central London use platforms 2 and 4. Terminating trains which return to central London generally use platform 4.

Platforms 1 and 2 can accommodate 12-coach trains, and were used by the express services to and Portsmouth Harbour until they were diverted in the early 1980s to serve Gatwick Airport. Nowadays all trains calling at Sutton are formed of ten coaches or fewer. At the London end of platform 1, there are the remains of a fifth platform, which was a bay for local services via Mitcham Junction.

Two waiting rooms serve the station. An M&S Food to Go shop sits adjacent to the concourse within the station building.[3]

Three lifts serve all platforms – one each for platforms one, two/three and four.

The installation of a side entrance serving the Quadrant was completed in summer 2014.

Wimbledon branch

Parliamentary approval for a line from Wimbledon to Sutton had been obtained by the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) in 1910, but work had been delayed by the First World War.[4] From the W&SR's inception, the District Railway (DR, now the District line) was a shareholder of the company and had rights to run trains over the line when built. In the 1920s, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL, precursor of London Underground) planned, through its ownership of the DR, to use part of the route for an extension of the City and South London Railway (C&SLR, now the Northern line) to Sutton.

The SR objected and an agreement was reached that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the UERL giving up its rights over the W&SR route. The SR subsequently built the line, one of the last to be built in the London area. In both the 1910 and 1920s proposals, the next station towards Wimbledon was to be Cheam on Cheam Road, but the SR dropped this station and replaced it with West Sutton station.[5] The line opened on 5 January 1930 when full services on the line were extended from South Merton.

Services

Services at Sutton are operated by Southern and Thameslink using and EMUs.

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

During the peak hours, the station is served by an additional half-hourly service to London Victoria via Norbury and a half-hourly service between Epsom and London Victoria via Hackbridge.

On Saturday evenings (after approximately 18:45) and on Sundays, there is no service south of Dorking to Horsham.

Connections

London Buses routes 80, 164, 280, 470, S1, S2, S3 and S4, night route N44 and non-TFL routes 420 and 820 serve the station.

Future

A planned extension to the Tramlink light rail or a separate bus rapid transit (BRT) system called the Sutton Link will create a new tram or BRT/rail interchange in Sutton, offering services to South Wimbledon via St Helier.[6] [7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: London's Rail & Tube services . 15 September 2011.
  2. Book: Yonge, John . Jacobs . Gerald . Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL . 3rd . November 2008 . 1994 . Trackmaps . Bradford on Avon . 978-0-9549866-4-3 . map 22 .
  3. Web site: National Rail Enquiries - station information for Sutton. www.nationalrail.co.uk.
  4. Jackson. Alan A.. December 1966. The Wimbledon & Sutton Railway – A late arrival on the South London suburban scene. The Railway Magazine. 675–680 . 7 May 2009.
  5. Wilson. Geoffrey. September 2008. The Wimbledon & Sutton Railway. Merton Historical Society: Bulletin 167 . 10–13 . 2 December 2017.
  6. News: White. Anna. Exclusive: Tramlink extension set to bring 10,000 new homes to south-west London as TfL promises £70m to project. 27 September 2017. Evening Standard. 26 September 2017.
  7. Web site: Have your say on the Sutton Link: A major new public transport service for Sutton and Merton - Transport for London - Citizen Space.