Sanderstead railway station is on the Oxted Line 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 ...

, from Sanderstead village. 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 . The station is managed by Southern. On the up (London-bound) platform is a ticket office, staffed for most of the day, and a self-service

ticket machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

is outside the station on the up side: there is no

PERTIS In the Ticket (admission), ticketing system of the Rail transport in Great Britain, British rail network, a Permit to Travel provisionally allows passengers to travel on a train when they have not purchased a ticket in advance and the ticket offi ...

(Permit to travel) machine. Purley Oaks, also in

, is nearby.

History

The station was opened on 10 March 1884 by 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 the South Eastern Railway with their line between South Croydon and East Grinstead. The population was around 300, rising to 534 by 1901. In 1913 the station was set alight in an act of arson. The suffragette

Elsie Duval Elsie Diederichs Duval (1892–1919) was a British suffragette. She was arrested many times throughout her life and in 1913 became the first woman to be released from Holloway Prison under the so-called 'Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill ...

was the main suspect. The replacement building was weather-boarded, cheap to construct but requiring regular maintenance. An extensive bookstall was on the up platform, and a

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

on the down platform. In 1928 the Southern Heights Light Railway was approved, which would have left the Oxted line south east of the station and finished at . On it would have run a loop service from Charing Cross to Lewisham and then Woodside-Sanderstead-Orpington and back, or vice versa. However, the scheme could not attract investment and was moribund even before electrification of the

Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway The Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway (W&SC) was a short, relatively short-lived and unsuccessful railway in the London Borough of Croydon in London, England. Its site is now largely occupied by Tramlink. Route ;Woodside (London) ra ...

as its first stage. This was from Woodside to

Selsdon Selsdon is a village in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It now has the character of a suburb and sits at a high e ...

and over a short section of the Oxted Line to Sanderstead, and was completed in 1935. This route terminating at Sanderstead involved the only electric train service at the station until 1984. These electric trains, on the Woodside and South Croydon Railway via Selsdon to Elmers End, ran from 1935 until the line closed in 1983; at that time, fewer than 150 people were using the service per day, which operated only on weekdays at peak hours to Elmers End. Electrification of the South Croydon-Selsdon and Sanderstead-East Grinstead sections of the Oxted Line was approved by BR in the early 1980s: South Croydon-Selsdon was electrified in 1984 using some redundant materials from the closed Woodside-Selsdon line, and a London Bridge to Sanderstead electric train service begun. The station building was destroyed by fire again in June 1986, and a new brick building opened in September 1987. The signal box closed on 2 November 1985, and was demolished in August 1987. Electrification to East Grinstead was completed in October 1987.

Services

Off-peak, all services at Sanderstead 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.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

route 403 serves the station.

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 D stations Former Croydon and Oxted Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway