The Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway was an abortive railway scheme which obtained powers in July 1865 to build a line from

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, via

Oxted Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and north of East Grinstead in West Sussex. Oxte ...

with the intention that it should be worked 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 ...

(LB&SCR). The project was abandoned in 1867, before completion, following withdrawal of support by the LB&SCR, but part of the trackbed was later used in the construction 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 ...

History

The railway originated as an independent scheme drawn up by several former officers and directors of the LB&SCR in 1864 for a line from

, via

. The intention was that the line, once built, would be worked by, or else leased to, the LB&SCR. The scheme, and particularly the involvement of the then LB&SCR chairman

Leo Schuster Leopold Schuster (1791 – 27 February 1871) was a German-born British cotton trader turned merchant banker, best known as the Chairman of the London and Brighton Railway and then the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and part of the c ...

, attracted opposition from the South Eastern Railway (SER) who saw it as a significant incursion into their territory, creating a new direct line from London to Tunbridge Wells in opposition to their own existing one, and thereby contravening an 1849 agreement between the two companies. In retaliation, the SER put forward proposals for a new 'London, Lewes and Brighton' railway, together with 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 no ...

. p.171-2. There were also irregularities in the purchase of land, and criticisms of the use of foreign labour by the contractors. As a result of these difficulties and the financial crisis of 1866-7, the LB&SCR signed a new agreement with the SER in which they withdrew support for the scheme and the SER abandoned their own scheme. Work on the new line ceased, but the Surrey and Sussex company remained in existence until 1869 when it was merged with the LB&SCR and then closed. Much of the trackbed for this railway was later used in a joint scheme by the LB&SCR and SER to create a joint line from Croydon to

References

{{reflist Railway companies established in 1864 Pre-grouping British railway companies Rail transport in East Sussex Rail transport in Surrey History of East Sussex History of Surrey 1864 establishments in England