Dorking railway station

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Location
Dorking
Place	Dorking
Local authority	Mole Valley
Operations
Station code	DKG
Managed by	Southern
Platforms in use	3
Annual entry/exit 04/05	1.238 million **
History
11th March 1867 1st May 1867 27th July 1887 1st March 1888 2nd Feb 1901 9th July 1923 12th July 1925 3rd March 1929 15th May 1938 3rd July 1938 January 1964 7th Nov 1966 6th May 1968 23rd 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trains to London Bridge New signal box opens Electric trains to Victoria, Horsham and Portsmouth Final steam services withdrawn Goods yard closed Renamed "Dorking" New station building opened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
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
** based on sales of tickets in 2004/05 financial year which end or originate at Dorking. Disclaimer (PDF)

Dorking railway station is a railway station is one of three stations which serves the town of Dorking in Surrey, (the other two being and Dorking West). The station is within walking distance of Dorking Deepdene station and interchange on a through ticket is permitted.
There are 2tph towards London Waterloo, 2tph 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 was rebuilt during the 1980s and is now part of the same office block which houses the headquaters of Biwater.

1 Construction
2 Electrification
3 Signal Box
4 Services
5 Typical journey times
6 External links

[edit] 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 LSWCR 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 1892, but only from a junction with the North Downs Line to the 100 yards to the east of Dorking Deepdene.
A year later in July 1893 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 11th March 1867, however the connection with the line from Horsham was not made until 1st May 1867. Initially services ran from London Bridge to Brighton via Sutton and Steyning four times per day in each direction.

[edit] Electrification

The Southern Railway, formed in 1923, began an extensive programme of electrification of their suburban lines. The line from Waterloo to Dorking was electified using the 660V third rail system in 1925 and regular half-hourly semi-fast services were introduced on 12th July 1925 to run seven days per week. The 22.5 mile 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 3rd March 1929; the 25 mile journey took 53 minutes. The mid-sussex electrification of 1938 resulted in the express steam services from Victoia being replaced by electric services which were routed through Dorking. These gave commuters from Dorking their fastest ever link to Victoria (34 minutes non-stop 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.

[edit] 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 15th May 1938. It is one of many built in the Odeon style by the Southern Railway duing the 1930s. The original frame was an A2 type Westinghouse with 44 levers. The box controls the line from Box Hill & Westhumble to Warnham.

[edit] Services

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Box Hill & Westhumble		Southern Sutton & Mole Valley Lines		Holmwood
Box Hill & Westhumble		South West Trains		Terminus

[edit] Typical journey times

December 2006 - May 2007 timetable

Destination	Platform	Journey time	Frequency	Operator
Leatherhead	1, 2 or 3	8 minutes	4 tph	Southern and South West Trains
Epsom	1, 2 or 3	14 minutes	4 tph	Southern and South West Trains
Sutton	1 or 3	24 minutes	2 tph	Southern
Wimbledon	2	28 minutes	2 tph	South West Trains
Clapham Junction	1, 2 or 3	40 minutes	2 tph	Southern and South West Trains
LONDON VICTORIA	1 or 3	50 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