Robertsbridge railway station is on the Hastings line in the south of England and serves the village of

Robertsbridge Robertsbridge is a village in the civil parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge, and the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Hastings and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Royal Tunbridge ...

, East Sussex. It is down the line from London Charing Cross. 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

Robertsbridge Station, with Up Hastings express and K&ESR train geograph-2664648-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Robertsbridge was temporarily the terminus of the South Eastern Railway's (SER) "Hastings Line" from

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 ...

. This section was opened on 1 September 1851, with the 5.99 mile (9.64 km) stretch to

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

following four months later. A connection was then made with the existing route to Hastings on 1 February 1852; the line connecting with Hastings having been opened by the SER on 13 February 1851, and which initially gave the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway access to the latter town. A large station building was provided on the Down side, along with a signal box at the south end of the Down platform. Robertsbridge became a junction in 1900 with the opening of the ''Rother Valley Light Railway'' to

Tenterden Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is not ...

. The line was extended to

Headcorn Headcorn is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is on the floodplain of the River Beult south east of Maidstone. The village is 8 mi (13 km) southeast of Maidstone, on the A274 road to T ...

in 1905, and was renamed the

Kent and East Sussex Railway The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. Historical compa ...

. In 1954 all regular passenger services were withdrawn and the line beyond Tenterden Town was completely closed. The line to Tenterden continued to be used by freight services and occasional special passenger trains (e.g. hop pickers trains) until closed by

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 ...

on 12 June 1961. About half a mile length of line remained in use as a siding to serve Hodsons Mill on the outskirts of Robertsbridge until 1970.The

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. Overview Bay and islan ...

, on the Down (eastern) side of the station, is still in place and used for engineers trains. A railway preservation society, the Rother Valley Railway, have built a new separate station named on the east side of the car park, and have rebuilt the line from here to Northbridge Street. The first train on this rebuilt section ran in September 2013. They have plans to rebuild the rest of the route eastwards to join up with the Kent and East Sussex Railway and restore services along the line. (Steam trains already run on another section of the line, between Tenterden Town and Bodiam, 3½ miles from Robertsbridge.)

Services

All services at Robertsbridge are operated by

using

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: * 1 tph to London Charing Cross via * 1 tph to During the peak hours, the station is served by additional services between London Charing Cross and Hastings, increasing the service to 2 tph in each direction. There are also peak hour services to

London Cannon Street 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 ...

and .

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Hastings=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y Railway stations in East Sussex Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations DfT Category E stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1851 Railway stations served by Southeastern 1851 establishments in England

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...