Merstham | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Merstham Location of Merstham in Surrey | |
| Location | Merstham |
| Local authority | Reigate and Banstead |
| Grid reference | TQ291532 |
| Managed by | Southern |
| Station code(s) | MHM |
| DfT category | D |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Accessible | Yes[1] |
| Fare zone | D |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2019–20 |  0.820 million[2] |
| 2020–21 |  0.190 million[2] |
| 2021–22 | 0.462 million[2] |
| 2022–23 | 0.608 million[2] |
| 2023–24 | 0.681 million[2] |
| Key dates | |
| 1841 | first station opened |
| 1843 | closed |
| 1844 | present station opened on different site from first station |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°15′50″N0°09′00″W / 51.264°N 0.150°W /51.264; -0.150 |
 London transport portal | |
Merstham railway station is inMerstham,Surrey, England. It is on theBrighton Main Line, 20 miles 59 chains (33.4 km) measured fromLondon Charing Cross, and train services are currently provided bySouthern, who manage the station, andThameslink.
Merstham was on a stretch of line betweenCroydon andRedhill which Parliament insisted should be shared by theLondon and Brighton Railway (L&BR) route to Brighton, and theSouth Eastern Railway (SER) route toDover. As a result, there have been two railway stations at Merstham.
The original station was located 3/4 mile south of the current station. It was opened by the L&BR on 1 December 1841, and from 1842 it was also used by SER and was the point at which travellers between the two railways exchanged trains. The section of line betweenCoulsdon andRedhill was transferred to SER operation, and the new owners decided to close Merstham station on 1 October 1843, thereby forcing passengers wishing to change trains to walk between the two stations at Redhill. This was a tactic to force the L&BR to share the new SERReigate station atRedhill.[3] Once the L&BR had given way and closed their existing station atReigate Road, Redhill, the SER opened a new station at Merstham on the present site.
This station was opened 4 October 1844. The up side booking office (badly damaged by fire in the late 1980s and later rebuilt) and footbridge date from a 1905 rebuilding.
Despite being on the Brighton line, this station, along withCoulsdon South andRedhill, was owned by theSouth Eastern Railway (laterSouth Eastern & Chatham Railway), and was not used by L&BR (laterLondon Brighton and South Coast Railway trains. It was not until the creation of theSouthern Railway in 1923 that trains from the Brighton line called at the station. It is 20 miles 59 chains (33.4 km) fromCharing Cross, and has two platforms each long enough for a 12-coach train.[4]
Services at Merstham are operated bySouthern andThameslink usingClass 377 and700EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[5]
On Sundays, the service between London and Reigate reduces to hourly. In addition, the Peterborough to Horsham service also reduces to hourly and northbound, runs only as far as London Bridge.
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern | ||||
| Thameslink Peterborough to Horsham via Redhill | ||||
As of January 2016,Oyster and contactless payment cards can be used from this station.[6]
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Places listed are articlesnotable as settlements, arranged bypost town The two principal towns are emboldened TheM23 motorway follows approximately a boundary and is chiefly included for its regional importance. | ||||||||||||||||