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 hills that runs parallel to the eastern part of the route. The name was introduced in 1989 by Network SouthEast, the then operator. The North Downs Line serves the settlements in the Blackwater Valley as well as the towns of Guildford, Dorking and Reigate. It acts as an orbital route around the south-west of London and has direct connections to the Great Western Main Line at Reading, the Waterloo–Reading line at , the Alton line at , the Portsmouth Direct line at and the Brighton Main Line at Redhill.

Three different operators run passenger services on the North Downs Line. Great Western Railway runs services along the entire length of the line from Reading to Redhill, the majority of which continue along the Brighton Main Line to . Southern trains between and use a section west of Redhill. South Western Railway services between the capital and Reading use the line west of Wokingham and the same company operates between Guildford and en route to .

The majority of the North Downs Line was constructed by the independent Reading, Reigate and Guildford Railway company (RG&RR), although the section between Guildford and Ash Junction was built by the London and South Western Railway. The line opened in 1849 and services were run from the outset by the South Eastern Railway, which took over the RG&RR in 1852. Three sections of the line were electrified by the Southern Railway in the 1930s although around remain unelectrified. In the early 21st century, infrastructure works to increase the capacity of the line were undertaken, including the provision of new platforms at Reading and Redhill.

Route

Overview

The North Downs Line is a railway line in South East England. It links Reading railway station on the Great Western Main Line in Berkshire to on the Brighton Main Line in Surrey. It serves the settlements in the Blackwater Valley on the borders of Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire, as well as the Surrey towns of Guildford, Dorking and Reigate. It acts as an orbital route bypassing the south-west of London and has direct connections to the Waterloo–Reading line at , the Alton line at and the Portsmouth Direct line at . The 2015 "Surrey Rail Strategy" noted that 56% of passengers on the route connect to services on other railway lines and that a quarter of journeys either start or end at Reading. Around 13% of passengers travel to or from .

The name "North Downs Line" was first used in 1989 by Network SouthEast, the then operator of the line. Between Redhill and Ash, the line runs roughly parallel with the North Downs, a range of chalk hills that runs from Farnham to the White Cliffs of Dover. Between Ash and Reading, the line crosses the sands, gravels and clays of the London Basin. The steepest gradients, 1 in 96, and the summit of the line are near , where the route crosses the watershed between the Rivers Mole and Wey in Surrey. The distances along the line between Redhill (22 miles 40 chains) and Shalford Junction (41 mi 60 ch), and between Ash Junction (48 mi 34 ch) and Reading (68 mi 68 ch) are measured from station in London.

The North Downs Line is double track for the entirety of its length and has a maximum operational line speed of for passenger trains. Three sections of the line, RedhillReigate, GuildfordAldershot South Junction and WokinghamReading, are electrified using the 750 V DC third-rail system. Two sections, ReigateShalford Junction and Aldershot South JunctionWokingham, together totalling , are unelectrified. The line has a W6 loading gauge, and overnight engineering possessions of up to  hours are available. In 2006, Network Rail classified the North Downs Line as "congested", but, following the construction of new infrastructure, this status was revoked in 2023.

Reading to Guildford

The Reading to Guildford section of the North Downs Line is in length and has 13 stations in total. Reading and Guildford stations are managed by Network Rail and have 15 and 7 operational platforms respectively. The other 11 stations have two platforms each. , , , Wokingham, Ash and stations are managed by South Western Railway (SWR). , , , and stations are managed by Great Western Railway (GWR). The passenger train services that use this section of the North Downs Line are:
* Reading to Redhill and , operated by GWR using and units
* Reading to , operated by SWR using and units
* and to Guildford, operated by SWR using units

West of Wokingham Junction and east of Aldershot South Junction, this part of the line is electrified using the 750 V DC third-rail system, leaving an unelectrified central section. Most services on the North Downs Line use platforms 4, 5 and 6 at Reading station, but access to other platforms is possible. The Reading station area is controlled from Thames Valley rail operating centre, the line from Earley to North Camp is controlled by Basingstoke rail operating centre, and the section from North Camp is controlled by Guildford signal box. The majority of this section has a line speed of with the exception of the approaches to Reading, Wokingham and Guildford stations, and a restriction at Ash Junction where the line curves sharply. The steepest gradient, to the west of Guildford, is 1 in 100.

The Waterloo–Reading line diverges from this part of the North Downs Line at Wokingham Junction, and a spur to the Alton line joins at Aldershot South Junction. In addition, the line passes beneath the South Western Main Line at Farnborough, but there is no longer a junction between the two. This section passes over two navigable waterways, the River Kennet and the Basingstoke Canal, as well as the unnavigable River Loddon and its tributary, the Blackwater.

Shalford Junction to Redhill

Between Guildford and Shalford Junction, GWR trains use the Portsmouth Direct line to travel between the two parts of the North Downs Line. The route passes through two tunnels, Guildford Chalk Tunnel and St Catherine's Tunnel. Reversible working is available on the down line on this section of track.

The Shalford Junction to Redhill section of the North Downs Line is long and has eight stations in total. Reigate and Redhill stations are managed by Southern, but the remaining six stations (, , Gomshall, , and ) are managed by GWR. Redhill has four platforms, but the other seven stations have two each. The passenger train services that use this section of the North Downs Line are:
* Reading to Redhill and Gatwick Airport, operated by GWR
* Reigate to via Redhill, operated by Southern

Much of this part of the North Downs Line runs immediately to the south of the North Downs escarpment, although the route deviates to the south between Chilworth and Gomshall to avoid Albury Park. Only the section between Reigate and Redhill is electrified. Between Shalford Junction and Gomshall, the line is controlled from Guildford signal box and the majority of the route to the east is controlled by Reigate signal box. Redhill railway station and its approaches are controlled by Three Bridges rail operations centre. The maximum speed on this part of the North Downs Line is .

The route crosses the Mole Valley Line immediately to the east of Dorking Deepdene, but there is no longer a junction between the two. The navigable River Wey is crossed at Shalford via a steel truss bridge, which replaced the original wooden bridge in 1902. The North Downs Line crosses the River Mole on a five-arch, brick viaduct, built when the line was constructed in the late 1840s. The A24 dual carriageway at Dorking is crossed on a steel bridge, installed in 1964.

History

Proposal and authorisation

The Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway company (RG&RR) was formed in August 1845. It was led initially by Frederick Mangles, a banker from Guildford, and most of the board members were businessmen from London and Surrey. The company's stated objective was to build a line linking the three towns in its name to "secure through traffic passing between the West, North and Midlands and the Channel Ports avoiding the congestion of London and thus saving time, distance and expense."

The engineer, Francis Giles, was commissioned to survey the line. His route, presented to the board in January 1846, had an estimated cost of £710,000 (equivalent to £ million in ) and was to be double track throughout. It would run from the Great Western Main Line at Reading to the Brighton Main Line at Reigate Junction (later Redhill). Between Dorking and Gomshall, Giles's route required the use of the proposed London & Portsmouth Direct Atmospheric Railway. The approaches to Guildford would use part of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) lines to and .

Negotiations with other railway companies began at the start of 1846. By mid-January, the RG&RR had bought out the rival Reading and Reigate Company, promoted by David Mocatta, which had proposed a line with similar aims. That March, it agreed terms to run over the LSWR tracks from Shalford Junction to Guildford. In the same month, the South Eastern Railway (SER), which had wanted to build its own short branch from Reigate Junction to Dorking, offered to operate the line. A bill was prepared for Parliament and the RG&RR was authorised on 16 July 1846, the same day that the LSWR's line from Guildford to Alton was approved. The act gave the RG&RR the powers to construct the section of the line from Dorking to Gomshall, if it was not built in time by the London & Portsmouth Direct Atmospheric Railway Company.

Route alterations and construction

Francis Giles died in March 1847 and his position as surveyor and engineer was taken, on a temporary basis, by Robert Stephenson. Stephenson began to make changes to Giles's scheme, primarily to reduce costs. Around £3000 was to be saved by simplifying the link to the South Western Main Line at Farnborough, eliminating the north–west curve, leaving only the north–east curve to be built. At Reading, Giles had proposed running alongside the Great Western Main Line on a widened embankment, but Stephenson argued that the RG&RR should build a separate station (later known as ) instead of sharing the Great Western Railway (GWR) facilities. Minor alterations were also made to the route in the Gomshall, Albury and Ash areas. A deviations bill was submitted to Parliament and was given royal assent on 22 July 1847.

A formal ceremony to mark the start of construction took place near Betchworth on 20 August 1847. Contracts were awarded to George Wythes and William Jackson for the construction of the Reigate Junction-Dorking and Farnborough-Reading sections. In mid-1848, the plans for the London & Portsmouth Direct Atmospheric Railway were abandoned and the contract to build the Dorking-Shalford Junction section of the RG&RR was awarded to Charles Henfrey that May. The SER was responsible for constructing the stations on the eastern half of the line, for which it was paid £25,000.

Peter Barlow was appointed engineer in late 1847, although the exact date is uncertain. He disagreed strongly with Stephenson's alterations to the station arrangement at Reading but was unable to persuade the RG&RR board to reinstate Giles's original scheme. Barlow made some minor alterations to reduce costs, including reducing the span of the bridge over the Basingstoke Canal from to . He also suggested building the Dorking to Farnborough section as single track, but the board decided to continue with Giles's plans for a fully double-tracked railway. Following the conclusion of negotiations with the LSWR, a bill authorising the curve linking the RG&RR to the South West Main Line at Farnborough was granted royal assent on 26 June 1849.

Opening

Two sections of the line, from Farnborough to Reading and from Reigate Junction to Dorking, opened on 4 July 1849. Locomotives and rolling stock were delivered to the western section via the single-track link to the South West Main Line. From the outset, the line was worked by the SER. The initial timetable was four trains in each direction per day between Farnborough and Reading. There were seven trains from Dorking to London on weekdays and one fewer in the opposite direction.

The sections from Dorking to Shalford and from Guildford to Farnborough opened in August 1849. The collapse of St Catherine's Tunnel delayed the completion of the LSWR-constructed Shalford Junction to Guildford section, which finally opened on 15 October 1849. The initial daily full-line timetable included six trains from London to Reading, with five in the opposite direction, supplemented with an early morning departure from Guildford to the capital and an equivalent mid-evening return.

During the construction of the line, the RG&RR was unsure how best to serve the villages of Shere and Gomshall. When passenger services on the section between Dorking and Shalford began in August 1849, two temporary stations opened – one for each village. The Shere Heath station was closed the following year, and a permanent station was built at Gomshall to replace the temporary platforms there. In 1851, a platform was opened at the point where the line crosses the Dorking-London road. Initially called Box Hill and now known as Dorking Deepdene, the new station was intended to cater to passengers from the Leatherhead area.

The first freight trains began running on the line in September 1850. Goods sheds opened at Gomshall and Betchworth the following year, and a shed was provided at Ash from 1856. The yard at Dorking, equipped with an 8-ton crane and cattle pens, served both the town and the Denbies estate.

Purchase by the SER and late 19th century

In October 1851, the SER applied to Parliament to take over the RG&RR. The purchase took effect in March 1852, although the authorising act was not given royal assent until 17 June 1852. Over the first few years of SER ownership, the financial performance of the line was poor. In 1855, the company stated that the line was losing £15,377 per annum (equivalent to £ million in ), but the following year, the ''Railway Times'' estimated that the annual loss was around £30,000. Through trains from the GWR at Reading were introduced on 1 July 1863 with a daily Birkenhead to Dover return working, but disappointing passenger numbers resulted in the service being withdrawn in October 1868. In January 1869, there were five daily return services between Charing Cross and Reading, ten between Dorking and the capital, and one from Guildford. Passenger numbers from Dorking fell after the opening of the Leatherhead to Horsham line in 1867.

In the mid-1850s, Aldershot Military Town was established for the British Army in north-east Hampshire. In 1858, the SER opened North Camp station to serve the new camps. A goods yard was constructed at the station in 1859-60.

Several connections between the North Downs Line and other lines were created in the second half of the 19th century. The first was a single-track link running into the GWR station at Reading, which opened on 30 August 1855. The Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction Railway (SW&WR), which had been granted running powers over the Wokingham-Reading section in 1853, opened its line from Ascot on 9 July 1856. A second link at Reading, which passed under the Great Western Main Line and which was owned by the GWR and SW&WR, was opened to goods services on 1 December 1858 and to passenger trains on 17 January the following year. At Dorking, a single-track west-to-south spur joining the Leatherhead-Horsham line, was opened on 1 May 1867 but closed around the end of the century. The fourth link, a tight curve to the Alton line allowing SER trains from Ash to run into Aldershot station, was completed in 1879.

The construction of the railway line from Godalming to was completed in late 1858, although the first passenger services did not start running until January the following year. Since the line had been built on a speculative basis by the independent Portsmouth Railway (PR) company, it was unclear whether the LSWR would allow its trains to run over its line via Guildford and Woking to reach London. In July 1854, the PR gained authorisation to extend its line northwards from Godalming to Shalford, where it could join the North Downs Line. New embankments and a wooden trestle bridge across the River Wey were constructed by the SER to create a triangular junction at Shalford, providing an alternative route to the capital. However, before the link could be completed, the LSWR decided to allow PR trains to use its line, eliminating the immediate need for the connection. It is unclear whether track was ever laid over the spur, but the SER decided not to continue its work, fearing that completion would violate its long-standing agreement with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway not to compete for traffic to Portsmouth.

20th century

As a result of the Railways Act 1921, the North Downs Line became part of the Southern Railway in 1923. Three parts of the line were electrified in the 1930s using the third-rail system. The section between Redhill and Reigate was electrified under the Brighton Main Line electrification programme. Electric trains began running in public service on 17 July 1932, with trains to and from Reigate splitting and joining at Redhill with trains to and from . The electrification of the Wokingham–Reading and Guildford–Ash sections was completed on 1 January 1939. One further development to take place in the 1930s was the withdrawal of the passenger service on the former LSWR line between Ash Junction and via on 4 July 1937. Freight services on this route continued until final closure in 1961.

During the Second World War, the North Downs Line was fortified with additional earthworks, tank traps and pillboxes. A nine-road marshalling yard was built at Shalford and the link to the Dorking–Horsham line at Dorking was reinstated. The North Downs Line played a major role in the transport of troops evacuated from Dunkirk in May and June 1940.

The first Beeching report, published in 1963, recommended shutting all stations between Shalford and Betchworth inclusive. Instead of the proposed partial closure, steam-hauled passenger trains were replaced by diesel multiple units in January 1965, although steam-hauled freight continued until the end of the decade. The final through services between London and Reading via Redhill (one train in each direction per day) were withdrawn at the same time. On 4 January that year, Class 206 units, nicknamed Tadpoles and officially designated 3R, began operating an hourly stopping service between and Reading, calling at all stations except Winnersh and Earley. The second Beeching report, which was published in February 1965, recommended that the whole of the North Downs Line should be developed as a trunk route for freight services.

Reading Southern station closed on 6 September 1965 and all North Downs Line services were diverted to platform 4a at the main Reading station thereafter. Platform 4b at Reading opened in May 1975. In November 1967, full-time staff were removed from all stations on the line, with the exception of Redhill, Guildford and Reading. The change was made possible with the introduction of conductor-guards, with the ability to sell tickets, on all trains. An express service between Gatwick Airport and Reading began in May 1980, calling at North Camp, Guildford and Redhill. These trains began stopping at Dorking Deepdene in May 1986.

From 1982, the North Downs Line came under the control of Network SouthEast, one of the five business sectors of British Rail. In 1989, groups of lines in the sector were given names and identities; the Reading–Tonbridge and Reading–Gatwick airport services were branded the "North Downs Line" and the crest of the former Tonbridge Urban District Council was applied to the trains. In 1993, the Class 165 and 166 units were introduced. The reaction to the new trains was positive and, over the following 12 months, a 46% increase in passenger numbers was recorded for North Camp. Tonbridge remained the easternmost terminus for the North Downs Line services until the electrification of the Redhill–Tonbridge line in 1994, when the stopping services were cut back to Redhill.

21st century

As the result of the privatisation of British Rail, the North Downs Line was included in the Thames Trains franchise, won by the Go-Ahead Group in 1996. The franchise was awarded to FirstGroup

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