Reigate railway station

Reigate railway station serves the town of Reigate, Surrey, England, on the North Downs Line. It is 24 miles 27 chains (24.34 miles, 39.17 km) measured from London Charing Cross via Redhill. The station is managed by Southern.

Reigate
National Rail
General information
LocationReigate, Reigate and Banstead
England
Grid referenceTQ254507
Managed bySouthern
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeREI
ClassificationDfT category D
History
Original companyReading, Guildford and Reigate Railway
Key dates
4 July 1849opened as Reigate Town
1 November 1898renamed Reigate
Passengers
2017/18Increase 1.223 million
2018/19Increase 1.437 million
2019/20Increase 1.465 million
2020/21Decrease 0.369 million
2021/22Increase 0.893 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
Exterior of Reigate railway station

History

The original Reigate stations were located two miles from the town centre in a hamlet then known as Warwick Town but which later became Redhill. Red Hill and Reigate Road station was opened by the London and Brighton Railway on 12 July 1841. The nearby town was then served by a horse-drawn omnibus service operated by the railway. This was followed on 26 May 1842 by the South Eastern Railway (SER) Red Hill station (later misleadingly renamed 'Reigate'). Both these stations closed on 15 April 1844 when a new joint Redhill and Reigate station opened on the site of the present Redhill railway station.

The current Reigate station opened 4 July 1849 with the opening of the branch line from Redhill to Reigate by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway; the original station building from that time is still in use today. The station was initially called Reigate Town. The station was operated by the SER until 1898, the South Eastern and Chatham Railway until 1922, the Southern Railway (UK) until 1947 and British Railways until 1997.

The line between Redhill and Reigate was electrified on 1 January 1933 but the remainder remains unelectrified.

Services

The station is managed by Southern, who are one of two train operators from the station alongside Great Western Railway.

Southern

As of February 2020, Southern operates services to and from London Victoria via Redhill, which start and terminate at Reigate. These services have intermediate stops at Redhill, Merstham, Coulsdon South, Purley, East Croydon and Clapham Junction. Since May 2018, these services run half-hourly on weekdays and Saturdays, and hourly on Sundays;[1] this is a significant improvement, as previously Southern served Reigate with only one train per hour six days a week with no Sunday service.[2][3]

Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway operates two trains per hour eastbound to Redhill (one train per hour continues one stop further to Gatwick Airport) and two trains per hour westbound to Reading via Guildford (one semi-fast, one stopping), six days a week. The semi-fast westbound services call only at Dorking Deepdene, Guildford, North Camp, Blackwater and Wokingham before terminating at Reading; the stopping services call at most intermediate stations.[4]

On Sundays the service remains largely the same with 2 trains per hour to Reading (one semi-fast, one stopping) in the westbound direction. All trains terminate at Redhill on Sundays with no hourly extensions to Gatwick Airport.

Route table
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
TerminusSouthern
Great Western Railway

Layout

The station has two platforms, numbered from left to right when looking towards Redhill.[5] Platform 1 is long enough for an eight-car train but platform 2 can only accommodate up to six carriages.[6] The platforms are connected by a subway.[5]

Platform 1 is served by through services going eastbound towards Redhill and Gatwick Airport. Platform 2 is used by all westbound services towards Dorking, Guildford and Reading, as well as by eastbound services to Redhill and London that originate at Reigate.

There is an electrified siding to the east of station on the south side.[7]

Future

In 2020, Network Rail announced that they are planning to upgrade Reigate station, which includes constructing a new 12-carriage bay platform (number 3) on the south side of the station, and extending the existing platform 2 to also accommodate 12-car trains.[8][9][10] Currently the track layout just east of the station forces Southern to turn its trains around on platform 2, and since this platform is not long enough to accommodate 8-car sets, Southern services to and from Reigate are limited to 4 carriages in length. The upgrade would enable longer trains to serve the station, and the new bay platform would allow trains to/from London to terminate there instead of occupying the through westbound track, thus improving reliability on the whole line.[8]

Once the upgrade is delivered, there are further proposals to introduce Thameslink services running to London Bridge, London St Pancras and beyond to destinations north of London, replacing the current Southern services to London Victoria.[9][10]

Signal box
Reigate Signal Box

The station also incorporates a signal box, opened on 10 March 1929[11] to replace an earlier box at the other end of the station.[12] The box controls the North Downs Line from Gomshall to Redhill[11] and operates the adjacent level crossing gates. It is a Southern Railway type 11b brick built box and has 24 levers.[13]

References
  1. https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/timetabling/electronic-national-rail-timetable/ (Timetable No. 183 May 2018)
  2. "Redhill-Tonbridge line: Kent villages lose out to city slickers in Reigate". Tonbridge Line Commuters.
  3. "Timetable 20: Redhill and Reigate to London" (PDF). Southern, December 2019.
  4. Association of Train Operating Companies - official timetable
  5. Station facilities for Reigate - National Rail Enquiries
  6. 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.
  7. Mitchell & Smith 1989, Figs 102, 105.
  8. Reigate station upgrade - Network Rail
  9. Connect Reigate to Thameslink - Network Rail
  10. Reigate station set for third platform meaning direct trains to London Bridge - Surrey Live
  11. "Reigate Signal Box's ten-year "MOT"". Network Rail. 28 January 2005. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  12. Mitchell & Smith 1989, Fig. 97.
  13. "Reigate Signal Box". Heritage Gateway. Historic England. Retrieved 11 May 2023.

Sources
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1989). Guildford to Redhill. Country rail routes. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 0-9065-2063-0.
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