New Beckenham railway station serves

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

in the

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,336 ...

in south-east

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, in

Travelcard Zone 4 Fare zone 4 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 and, since 2007, on National Rail services. It ...

. It is measured from . The station and all trains serving it are operated by

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

History

Early years (1857–1922)

The Mid-Kent line was built by the Mid-Kent and North Kent Junction Railway (MK&NKJR), and was opened as far as

Beckenham Junction Beckenham Junction is the main railway and tram station in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley, south London. The railway stop is on the Chatham Main Line, down the line from and situated between and . The tram stop is one of the east ...

on 1 January 1857 (although at that time it was not technically a junction, for the

West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway (WELCPR) was an early railway company in south London between Crystal Palace station and Wandsworth, which was opened in 1856. The line was extended in 1858 to a station at Battersea Wharf near t ...

's line did not open until 3 May 1858). From its opening the line was worked by the South Eastern Railway (SER). Seven years later, the MK&NKJR built an extension from a new junction station at New Beckenham to Croydon (Addiscombe Road), which again was operated by the SER. This first short-lived station was located immediately south of the junction and may have had platforms on the 1857 and 1864 lines. Two years later, in October 1866, the current station built just north of the junction was opened. New spacious villas were laid out on the Cator estate between 1870 and 1880, attracting new business to the railway. The

Elmers End Elmers End is an area of south-east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, Greater London and formerly part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south of Beckenham, west of Eden Park, north of Monks Orchard and east of An ...

– Hayes section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway on opening day, 29 May 1882.The current Hayes service (2016) which serves the station uses the 1857 line to New Beckenham, the 1864 line to Elmers End and the 1882 line to Hayes. Almost all services from the station have terminated at

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

Cannon Street station Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is on ...

s; however, between 1880 and 1884 a service worked from Addiscombe Road calling at all stations to

New Cross New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, ...

, and then via a connection to the East London Line, terminating at Liverpool Street. The South Eastern Railway and its bitter rival the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and nor ...

agreed in 1898 to work as one railway company, under the name of 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 ...

, and New Beckenham became an SECR station. The station was rebuilt in 1904. At this time a middle road was laid, level crossings were replaced by road bridges, and a tiled subway and a new 50-lever signal box were provided. At this time there were, as well as through workings, services that terminated or attached to other London-bound trains at New Beckenham. The short link to Beckenham Junction was also served by a shuttle service from New Beckenham.

Southern Railway (1923–1947)

Following the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

(also known as the Grouping Act), New Beckenham became a Southern Railway station on 1 January 1923. The Mid-Kent line was

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 ...

with the 750 V DC

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

system, and electric services commenced on 28 February 1926. Early electric services were worked by early Southern Railway 3-car Electric Multiple Unit trains, often built from old SECR carriages. The middle road was removed in 1929.

British Railways (1948–1994)

After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the station fell under the auspices of

British Rail 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 ...

ways Southern Region. Colour light signalling was introduced between

Ladywell Ladywell is a locale in Lewisham in South East London, England, and a ward in the London Borough of Lewisham between Brockley, Crofton Park and Lewisham proper. It has ample green space including Ladywell Fields and Hilly Fields which borders ...

and New Beckenham on 4 April 1971, with signalling being controlled by the signal box at New Beckenham. Semaphore signalling remained to the south of the station until 28 September 1975, when the control of the signalling was transferred to London Bridge signalling centre, and New Beckenham signal box (a two-storey structure located at the end of the down platform) was closed. Upon sectorisation in 1982, two passenger sectors were created:

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

, operating principal express services; and London & South East (renamed

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

in 1986) which operated commuter services in the London area. The spur between New Beckenham and Beckenham Junction (the original 1857 route) was reduced to single track in 1987, with a stabling siding replacing the lifted line. Regular services had not been run over the line for many years, but in the 1990s a Cannon Street-

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

-New Beckenham- Bromley South-

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

service briefly operated.

The privatisation era (1994–present day)

Following privatisation of British Rail on 1 April 1994, the infrastructure at New Beckenham station became the responsibility of

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

, while a business unit operated the train services. On 13 October 1996, operation of the passenger services passed to

Connex South Eastern Connex South Eastern was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Connex that operated the South Eastern franchise from October 1996 until November 2003. History On 13 October 1996 Connex commenced operating the South Eastern ...

which was originally due to run the franchise until 2011. Following a number of accidents and financial issues, Railtrack plc was sold on 3 October 2002 to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, which became responsible for the infrastructure. The

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for Rail transport in the United Kingdom, the railway industry. Its motto was 'Brita ...

decided on 27 June 2003 to strip Connex of the franchise, citing poor financial management, and to run the franchise itself. Connex South Eastern continued to operate the franchise until 8 November 2003, with the services transferring to the Strategic Rail Authority's

South Eastern Trains South Eastern Trains (stylised as Southeastern) was a publicly owned train operating company that operated the South Eastern Passenger Rail Franchise between November 2003, when it took over from Connex South Eastern, and 1 April 2006, when S ...

subsidiary the following day. On 30 November 2005, the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

awarded

Govia Govia is a transport company based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in November 1996 as a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%) to bid for rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail. History Establis ...

the Integrated Kent franchise. The services operated by South Eastern Trains transferred to

on 1 April 2006.

Services

Historical Services

In 1912, the daily down services to New Beckenham consisted of:

Current Services

All services at New Beckenham are operated by

using , , and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 4 tph to London Charing Cross (2 of these run non-stop between and and 2 call at ) * 4 tph to On Sundays, the station is served by a half-hourly service between Hayes and London Charing Cross via Lewisham.

Layout

Connections

London Buses route 352 This is a list of Transport for London (TfL) contracted bus routes in London, England, as well as commercial services that enter the Greater London area (except coaches). Bus services in London are operated by Abellio London, Arriva London, G ...

serves the station.

Notes

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Hayes=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y Railway stations in the London Borough of Bromley Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1864 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1866 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1866 establishments in England