Reigate railway station serves the town of

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

, Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, on the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading, on the Great Western Main Line, to Redhill and , along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route. ...

. It is measured from via . The station is managed by Southern.

History

The original Reigate stations were located two miles from the town centre in a hamlet then known as Warwick Town but which later became Redhill. Red Hill and Reigate Road station was opened by the

London and Brighton Railway The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access fro ...

on 12 July 1841. The nearby town was then served by a horse-drawn omnibus service operated by the railway. This was followed on 26 May 1842 by the South Eastern Railway (SER) Red Hill station (later misleadingly renamed 'Reigate'). Both these stations closed on 15 April 1844 when a new joint Redhill and Reigate station opened on the site of the present

Redhill railway station Redhill railway station serves the town of Redhill, Surrey, Redhill, Surrey, England. The station is a major interchange point on the Brighton Main Line, measured from . It is managed by Southern (train operating company), Southern, and is also ...

. The current Reigate station opened 4 July 1849 with the opening of the branch line from Redhill to Reigate by the

Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway The South Eastern Railway (SER) was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury ...

; the original station building from that time is still in use today. The station was initially called Reigate Town. The station was operated by the SER until 1898, the South Eastern and Chatham Railway until 1922, the

Southern Railway (UK) The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed ...

until 1947 and British Railways until 1997. The line to Redhill to Reigate was electrified on 1 January 1933 but the remainder remains unelectrified.

Services

The station is managed by Southern, who are one of two train operators from the station alongside Great Western Railway.

Southern

As of February 2020, Southern operates services to and from via , which start and terminate at Reigate. These services have intermediate stops at Redhill, , , , and . Since May 2018, these services run half-hourly on weekdays and Saturdays, and hourly on Sundays; this is a significant improvement, as previously Southern served Reigate with only one train per hour six days a week with no Sunday service.

Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway operates two trains per hour eastbound to (one train per hour continues one stop further to ) and two trains per hour westbound to via (one semi-fast, one stopping), six days a week. The semi-fast westbound services call only at , Guildford, , and before terminating at Reading; the stopping services call at most intermediate stations. On Sundays the service remains largely the same with 2 trains per hour to Reading (one semi-fast, one stopping) in the westbound direction. All trains terminate at Redhill on Sundays with no hourly extensions to Gatwick Airport.

Route table

Layout

The station has two platforms, numbered from left to right when looking towards Redhill.Station facilities for Reigate
- National Rail Enquiries Platform 1 is long enough for an eight-car train but platform 2 can only accommodate up to six carriages. The platforms are connected by a subway. Platform 1 is served by through services going eastbound towards Redhill and Gatwick Airport. Platform 2 is used by all westbound services towards Dorking, Guildford and Reading, as well as by eastbound services to Redhill and London that originate at Reigate. There is an electrified siding to the east of station on the south side.

Future

In 2020, Network Rail announced that they are planning to upgrade Reigate station, which includes constructing a new 12-carriage bay platform (number 3) on the south side of the station, and extending the existing platform 2 to also accommodate 12-car trains.Reigate station upgrade
- Network RailConnect Reigate to Thameslink
- Network RailReigate station set for third platform meaning direct trains to London Bridge
- Surrey Live Currently the track layout just east of the station forces Southern to turn its trains around on platform 2, and since this platform is not long enough to accommodate 8-car sets, Southern services to and from Reigate are limited to 4 carriages in length. The upgrade would enable longer trains to serve the station, and the new bay platform would allow trains to/from London to terminate there instead of occupying the through westbound track, thus improving reliability on the whole line. Once the upgrade is delivered, there are further proposals to introduce

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

services running to , and beyond to destinations north of London, replacing the current Southern services to London Victoria.

Signal box

The station also incorporates a signal box, built in 1929 to replace an earlier box at the other end of the station. This remains in use to operate the Level crossing gates and other signals along the

References

External links

{{coord, 51.242, N, 0.204, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Surrey Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway 1849 establishments in England Reigate