Riddlesdown railway station is on the Oxted line serving

Riddlesdown Riddlesdown is a place in the London Borough of Croydon, one mile east from the centre of its post town of Purley. The name applies to the residential district and to the green space maintained by the City of London Corporation which is also ...

in the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough, borough in South London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of and had a population of 397,741 as of mid-2023, making it the most populous London borough. It is London's southernmost ...

, south

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 ...

. It is in

Travelcard Zone 6 Fare zone 6 is an outer zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway, National Rail services (since 2007), and the Eli ...

, from , although off peak trains run to and from . It is managed by Southern.

History

The Oxted line was opened in stages by different companies; Riddlesdown lies on the portion between and Crowhurst Junction (to the south of ), which was authorised in 1878 and opened on 10 March 1884 by the Croydon and Oxted Joint Railway. Riddlesdown was not one of the original stations on the line – it was opened by the Southern Railway on 5 June 1927.

Platforms

There are two platforms, each of which is long enough for an eight-car train. When the station first opened, lighting was by gas. Electric lighting had been installed by April 1960. Platform 1 is the platform for trains towards Croydon and London. Platform 2 is the platform towards

East Grinstead East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...

. The station is unusual amongst suburban London stations in that there is no means of crossing between the platforms. The platforms are reached via separate footpaths from Lower Barn Road, either side of the bridge that takes the railway over the road. On the London-bound platform 1, there is a staffed ticket office (open for only part of the day) and waiting room. There are self-service ticket machines and Oyster scanners on both platforms. To the south of the station is the northern portal of Riddlesdown Tunnel, which is long.

Services

Off-peak, all services at Riddlesdown are operated by Southern using

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 in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to * 2 tph to via During the middle of the weekday (roughly 11:30-14:30), this service is reduced to one train per hour. During the peak hours, there are also

Thameslink Thameslink is a mainline route on the British railway network, running from , , , , , and via central London to , , , Rainham, , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than ...

operated services between East Grinstead, and . These services are operated using EMUs.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Oxted=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y Railway stations in the London Borough of Croydon DfT Category E stations Former Southern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1927 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway