Dorking West railway station

Dorking West railway station is in Dorking, Surrey, England. It is 30 miles 42 chains (49.13 km) measured from London Charing Cross via Redhill and is one of three stations serving the town (the others are Dorking and Dorking Deepdene).

Dorking West
Location
PlaceDorking
Local authorityMole Valley
Grid referenceTQ159498
Operations
Station codeDKT
Managed byGreat Western Railway
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 62,308
– Interchange  1,639
2015/16 58,877
– Interchange  1,070
2016/17 55,995
– Interchange  744
2017/18 62,072
– Interchange  482
2018/19 61,928
– Interchange  479
History
Original companyReading, Guildford and Reigate Railway
Pre-groupingSouth Eastern Railway
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
4 July 1849opened as "Dorking"
1923renamed "Dorking Town"
1987renamed "Dorking West"
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 West from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Dorking West is on the North Downs Line. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all trains serving it. The station is unstaffed, and there is no ticket office at the station, nor have ticket machines been installed. Passengers travelling from the station must purchase tickets on board the train.

History

The Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway opened the station in 1849 as "Dorking". From the outset it was leased and worked by the South Eastern Railway, which absorbed the RG&RR in 1852. The staggered platforms are typical of stations built for the SER where no footbridge was provided. The arrangement of the platforms enabled passengers to cross behind trains if two were at the station simultaneously.

In 1867 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened a line from Leatherhead to Dorking, with its own Dorking railway station. In the 1923 Grouping the SER and LB&SCR became part of the new Southern Railway, which immediately renamed both stations. The SR renamed the former LB&SCR station "Dorking North" and the original RG&RR station "Dorking Town". In 1987 Network SouthEast changed "Dorking Town" to "Dorking West".

British Railways closed the goods yard in 1963 and made the station unstaffed in 1967.

Signals on this part of the line are worked from Reigate. The station is 30 miles 42 chains (49.1 km) from Charing Cross, and has two platforms, which can each accommodate a five-coach train.[1]

The SER originally ran trains from here to London Charing Cross via Redhill. Latterly the service ran on to Tonbridge in Kent. In 2004 First Great Western Link took over the former Thames Trains franchise and run services between Reading and Gatwick Airport using Class 165 and Class 166 Turbo Diesel Multiple Units.

Although it is the least used of the three Dorking stations, the official Annual rail passenger usage data (as low as 16 passengers / year in 2011-12) is misleading because most tickets are issued to/from 'Dorking Stations' rather than specifically Dorking West.

Location

Access is from Station Road (to the south) through the industrial estate car parks, down an unlit unsignposted footpath. The station has no car park but is accessible for wheelchairs from both sides.

Services

The typical off-peak service (from December 2006) is one train every two hours between Reading and Redhill (extended to Gatwick Airport on Sundays).[2]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Gomshall   Great Western Railway
North Downs Line		   Dorking Deepdene

Images
  • Images of Dorking West station
  • Station sign, advertising the Surrey Hills
  • Pedestrian tunnel

References
  1. Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 24B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Table 148 (Network Rail)

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