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Dorking West railway station
Dorking West railway station is in Dorking, Surrey, England. It is 30 miles 42 chains (30.53 miles, 49.13 km) from London Charing Cross, via Redhill, and is one of three stations serving the town, the others being Dorking and Dorking Deepdene. Dorking West is on the North Downs Line. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all trains serving it. The station is unstaffed, and there is no ticket office, nor have ticket machines been installed. Passengers travelling from the station must purchase tickets on board the train. HistoryThe Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway opened the station in 1849 as "Dorking". From the outset it was leased and worked by the South Eastern Railway, which absorbed the RG&RR in 1852. The staggered platforms are typical of stations built for the SER where no footbridge was provided. The arrangement of the platforms enabled passengers to cross behind trains if two were at the station simultaneously. In 1867 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened a line from Leatherhead to Dorking, with its own Dorking railway station. In the 1923 Grouping the SER and LB&SCR became part of the new Southern Railway, which immediately renamed both stations. The SR renamed the former LB&SCR station "Dorking North" and the original RG&RR station "Dorking Town". In 1987 Network SouthEast changed "Dorking Town" to "Dorking West". British Railways closed the goods yard in 1963 and made the station unstaffed in 1967. Signals on this part of the line are worked from Reigate. The station is 30 miles 42 chains (49.1 km) from Charing Cross, and has two platforms, which can each accommodate a five-coach train.[1] The SER originally ran trains from Dorking West to London Charing Cross via Redhill. Latterly, the service has run on to Tonbridge in Kent. In 2004, First Great Western Link took over the former Thames Trains franchise and runs services between Reading and Gatwick Airport using Class 165 and Class 166 Turbo Diesel Multiple Units. Although it is the least used of the three Dorking stations (as low as 16 passengers/year in 2011–12), the official rail passenger usage data is misleading because most tickets are issued to/from "Dorking Stations", rather than Dorking West specifically. LocationAccess is from Station Road to the south, through the industrial estate car parks, and down an unlit un-signposted footpath. The station has no car park but both platforms are accessible by wheelchairs. ServicesAll services at Dorking West are operated by Great Western Railway using Class 165 and 166 DMUs. The typical off-peak service is one train every two hours in each direction between Reading via Guildford and Gatwick Airport. During the peak hours, the service is increased to one train per hour in each direction.[2] On Sundays, eastbound services at the station run only as far as Redhill.
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References
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dorking West railway station.
51°14′10″N 0°20′24″W / 51.236°N 0.340°W
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