Ockley railway station

Ockley
Location
Place	Ockley
Local authority	Mole Valley
Operations
Station code	OLY
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	32,883
2005/06 *	33,890
2006/07 *	35,467
2007/08 *	47,756
2008/09 *	50,224
2009/10 *	42,584
History
Opened 1 May 1867 (1 May 1867)
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ockley from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Ockley railway station serves the villages of Ockley & Capel in Surrey, England being situated two miles to the east of Ockley and just over one mile to the west of Capel . The station is 29 railway miles (47 km) south of London Victoria station. Ockley is managed by Southern who also provide all the services.

It opened as Ockley & Capel on 1 May 1867 as part of the London Brighton South Coast Railway extension to Horsham. Its situation next to Le Steeres of Jayes Park brickworks (closed c 1914) and nearby Phorpres Works (now Clockhouse Works) allowed for substantial brickwork traffic for many years. Milk traffic was also important until the early 1930s when this trade was lost to road transport.

Goods traffic declined slowly over the next thirty years ceasing finally in June 1962.^[1]

The station could very easily have suffered a similar fate (with the potential loss of many of its most important historic features - especially the wooden station canopy) as Warnham station level crossing and signal box, but in recent years Ockley Station has been protected from such an outcome by the efforts of one of the property owners living in the Station Approach who a number of years ago successfully applied to English Heritage to have the station Grade II listed. The station is now Grade II listed^[2] and Network Rail must maintain it in its present form.

A great deal of further detail on the history of this station and the entire section of line between Dorking and Horsham can be found in John Harrod's Up The Dorking^[3]

Services

For most of the day there is only one train per hour southbound to Horsham via Warnham and there is also only one train per hour northbound towards Victoria via Holmwood, Dorking and then onwards via Sutton and Clapham Junction. However in the Monday to Friday morning peak northbound and the evening peak southbound there are some additional services on an approximately half hourly basis.

There is only a limited mid and late evening service Southbound from Monday to Friday as there are no trains from London Victoria between the 1920 service and the 2326 service; no evening service on a Saturday and no service at all on a Sunday.

Facilities

The station has a Permit-To-Travel machine, but has no proper ticket machine despite it being as well used as Box Hill & Westhumble station that does. Tickets can be purchased in advance of travel from Southern's website, and then collected from any destination station run by Southern with a modern screen-based ticket-issuing machine. The station has free parking for around 15 cars (13 normal spaces and two disabled) in the Station Approach, but these spaces are often full by 7.30am on weekdays. There is no taxi rank, so a taxi would have to be summoned by telephone from Dorking or Horsham. There is a BT Payphone in front of the station building which only takes credit or debit cards. There are no buses that serve the station itself.

Fares

As the station has no ticketing facilities it is necessary to either book tickets online, or upon arrival at your destination. As penalty fares operate on trains travelling from Ockely, it is necessary to purchase a Permit To Travel for at least £0.05 face value at Ockley.

Journey Times

Journey times vary between 63 and 76 minutes to London Victoria compared to times of between 51 and 60 minutes as recently as 1997.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ From Epsom to Horsham Southern Min Lines by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith (Middleton Press)
2. ^ British Listed Buildings http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-479635-ockley-railway-station-rhumbles-and-the-
3. ^ Up The Dorking by John Harrod Ian Allen Publishing

External links

• Train times and station information for Ockley railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Holmwood		Southern Sutton & Mole Valley Lines Mondays-Saturdays only		Warnham

• 

  Ockley railway station platform 1 seen on the way to Horsham

Coordinates: 51°09′07″N 0°20′10″W / 51.152°N 0.336°W / 51.152; -0.336