Cowden station NW geograph-3322842-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Cowden railway station is on the branch of the

Oxted line The Oxted line is a railway in southern England and part of the Southern franchise. The railway splits into two branches towards the south and has direct trains throughout to London termini. It was opened jointly by the London, Brighton and ...

in southern England and serves

Cowden Cowden () is a small village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the northern slopes of the Weald, south-west of Tonbridge. The old High Street has Grade II listed cottages and village houses, ...

in Kent. It is from . 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 station was opened 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 its ...

on 1 October 1888. It passed onto the Southern Railway in 1923 and to

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 ...

in 1948. The station was destaffed in the 1990s. When the line was singled in 1990 the "up" platform was taken out of use and all trains now use the former "down" platform. The track is not

electrified 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. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

, so only diesel or steam trains can run. In 1994 a serious accident occurred just south of the station.

Facilities

Cowden station is unstaffed and tickets must be bought from the 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, ...

at the station. The station has passenger help points and covered seating areas available on its platform. The station also has a small car park and cycle rack at the station entrance. Step free access is available to the platform at Cowden.

Services

All services at Cowden are operated by

using

DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to Services increase to 2 tph in each direction during the peak hours. On Sundays, the northbound service runs as far as Oxted only.

References

External links

Disused Railway Stations - Cowden
{{coord, 51.156, N, 0.110, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Sevenoaks District Railway stations in Kent Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway