Reigate railway station serves the town of Reigate,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England, on the North Downs Line. It is measured from via . The station is managed by

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

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 The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easter ...

until 1922, the Southern Railway (UK) until 1947 and

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

until 1997. The line to Redhill to Reigate was electrified on 1 January 1933 but the remainder remains unelectrified.

Services

The station is managed by

, who are one of two train operators from the station alongside

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

Southern

As of February 2020, Southern operates services to and from via , which start and terminate at Reigate. These services have intermediate stops at Redhill, , , , and . Since May 2018, these services run half-hourly on weekdays and Saturdays, and hourly on Sundays; this is a significant improvement, as previously Southern served Reigate with only one train per hour six days a week with no Sunday service.

Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway operates two trains per hour eastbound to (one train per hour continues one stop further to ) and two trains per hour westbound to via (one semi-fast, one stopping), six days a week. The semi-fast westbound services call only at , Guildford, , and before terminating at Reading; the stopping services call at most intermediate stations. 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

Layout

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

Future

In 2020, Network Rail announced that they are planning to upgrade Reigate station, which includes constructing a new 12-carriage

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

(number 3) on the south side of the station, and extending the existing platform 2 to also accommodate 12-car trains.Reigate station upgrade
- Network RailConnect Reigate to Thameslink
- Network RailReigate station set for third platform meaning direct trains to London Bridge
- Surrey Live Currently the track layout just east of the station forces

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. Once the upgrade is delivered, there are further proposals to introduce Thameslink services running to , and beyond to destinations north of London, replacing the current Southern services to London Victoria.

Signal box

The station also incorporates a signal box, built in 1929 to replace an earlier box at the other end of the station. This remains in use to operate the Level crossing gates and other signals along the North Downs Line.

References

External links

{{coord, 51.242, N, 0.204, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Surrey Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway 1849 establishments in England Reigate