Dorking railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Located on the

Mole Valley line The Sutton and Mole Valley lines were constructed between 1847 and 1868 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the London and South Western Railway and the LBSCR-sponsored Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway. Services Service ...

, it is down the line from (via ). The station is one of three that serve the town of Dorking, alongside and stations (both on the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a railway line in South East England. It runs for from in Berkshire to in Surrey. It is named after the North Downs, a range of Chalk Group, chalk hills that runs parallel to the eastern part of the route. The name wa ...

). Dorking and Dorking Deepdene stations are within walking distance of each other and interchange between them on a through ticket is permitted. The station is managed by Southern, which is one of two companies serving the station alongside

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

. It has three platforms, numbered 1–3 from left to right when looking towards London; each platform is long enough to accommodate 10 carriages. The platforms are connected by both a subway and a footbridge, with lift access available to all platforms.

History

Construction

The Mole Gap between Dorking and

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

is one of the few natural breaches in the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

and its potential as a rail corridor was realised as early as 1830 when a line linking

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

was proposed. In 1845–46, the ''Direct London and Portsmouth Railway'' was authorised by

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to run south from

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

to Dorking on to

Godalming Godalming ( ) is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settl ...

Havant Havant ( ) is a town in the south-east corner of Hampshire, England. Nearby places include Portsmouth to the south-west, Southampton to the west, Waterlooville to north, Chichester to the east and Hayling Island to the south. The wider borough ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

. The scheme failed to attract sufficient investment and was dropped in favour of the

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

and

route from . 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 known today as the

. By 1859 the

London, Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR (known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton)) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at ...

and

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

had built a joint line to

from Epsom, where their tracks separated (the former heading for , the latter for . An independent ''Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway'' was set up and promoted by interested local parties (principally from ) to link the three towns. The railway was approved by Act of Parliament in July 1862, but only from a junction with the South Eastern Railway's

, to the east of , to the LBSCR's

Arun Valley line The Arun Valley line, also known as the Mid Sussex line, is part of the Southern- and Thameslink-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges t ...

at Horsham. A year later, in July 1863, LBSCR secured authority to build the line from its station at to make a connection with the line from Horsham. The line to Leatherhead was opened on 11 March 1867; however, the connection with the line from Horsham was not made until 1 May 1867. Initially services ran from to via and , four times per day in each direction. On 27 July 1887, Betchworth Tunnel to the south of the station collapsed. This meant that trains were unable to run towards Horsham until the repairs were completed on 1 March 1888.

Electrification

The Southern Railway, formed in 1923, began an extensive programme of

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

of their suburban lines. The line from Waterloo to Dorking was electrified using the 660 V third rail system in 1925 and regular half-hourly semi-fast services were introduced on 12 July 1925 to run seven days per week. The journey to Waterloo originally took 45 minutes, although this was considerably lengthened when trains began to stop at all stations shortly afterwards. Additional hourly electric services to London Bridge via and began on 3 March 1929; the journey took 53 minutes. The mid-Sussex electrification of 1938 resulted in the express steam services from

and

Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), also known as Bognor, is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns include Littleham ...

being replaced by electric services which were routed through Dorking, calling only at and London Victoria. These gave commuters from Dorking their fastest ever link to – 34 minutes during peak hours. Some steam services to other unelectrified lines (such as the

Steyning Line The Steyning Line was a railway branch line that connected the West Sussex market town of Horsham with the port of Shoreham-by-Sea, with connections to Brighton. It was built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and opened in 1861. ...

) continued until their final withdrawal in January 1964, during the closures associated with the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

. In the timetable change of May 1978 the mid-Sussex and Portsmouth express services were routed via to serve , and the off-peak service provision to Dorking was reduced to two semi-fast services from Victoria per hour, with services to Horsham running every two hours. Now the average journey time to London termini takes a passenger 55 minutes. The route to Horsham was neglected for some years during the 1980s, with shuttle services between Dorking and Horsham operating every two hours at off-peak times. In contrast, the service pattern now provided is one train an hour through from London to Horsham (headcode 84). The off-peak service provision of two trains from London Bridge to Horsham via Sutton and Dorking existed for a number of years from about 1985 but ceased by 2000. The former Horsham–Waterloo trains via Dorking (headcode 15) had ceased as early as 1980.

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 15 May 1938, ahead of the introduction of electric express services. It is one of many built in the ''Odeon'' style by the Southern Railway during the 1930s. The original frame was an A2 type Westinghouse with 44 levers. The box controls the line from Box Hill & Westhumble to just south of Dorking station. It controls one of the last examples of a Southern Railway "Dummy" Signal, which controls the exit of the carriage siding.

Services

Services at Dorking are operated by Southern and

using and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the ...

. The typical off-peak service is: * 2 tph to via * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to Before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

served Dorking 2 tph to via but this service has not been restored and only sees 1 tph as of 2024 On Saturday evenings (after approximately 18:45) and on Sundays, there is no service south of Dorking to Horsham. On Saturday evenings there are two trains to West Croydon, The 23:07 and the 23:37 calling at all stops except from Ewell East. Operated by Southern Unlike other towns in the London commuter belt, Dorking does not receive any express services, which gives overcapacity towards the suburban terminus due to the longer journey times and overcrowding on the inner-city phase of journeys.

Future proposals

In November 2018, the Dorking Town Forum submitted a proposal to Network Rail for a £21 million upgrade of the Dorking station area. While the majority of the proposal focuses on improvements to nearby Dorking Deepdene station, the plan also envisages the construction of a new direct -long foot link between Dorking and Dorking Deepdene, which would allow for easier interchanging between the two stations.

References

External links

{{Transport in Surrey Railway stations in Surrey Dorking Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations DfT Category C1 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway 1867 establishments in England