Neha Patil (Editor)

Merstham railway station

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Place
  
Station code
  
MHM

DfT category
  
D

Local authority
  
Reigate and Banstead

Grid reference
  
TQ291532

Managed by
  
2011/12
  
0.677 million

Number of platforms
  
2


Address
  
Merstham, Redhill RH1 3AP, United Kingdom

Similar
  
Earlswood (Surrey) railway st, Reigate railway station, Kingswood railway station, Coulsdon South railway st, Tadworth railway station

Merstham railway station is in Surrey, England. It is on the Brighton Main Line, and train services are currently provided by Southern, who manage the station, and Thameslink.

Contents

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. 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.

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.

A PERTIS self-service 'Permit to Travel' ticket machine is located at the pedestrian gate to the up platform.

Services

The typical off-peak train service per hour is:

  • 2tph to London Bridge (Southern)
  • 2tph to Horsham (Southern)
  • 2tph to Bedford (Thameslink)
  • 2tph to Three Bridges (Thameslink)
  • Oyster extension

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

    References

    Merstham railway station Wikipedia


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