- West Sutton railway station
Infobox London station
name = West Sutton
railcode = WSU
manager =First Capital Connect
zone = 5
locale = Sutton
borough =London Borough of Sutton
start =5 January 1930
platforms = 2
railexits0405 = 0.099
railexits0506 = 0.105
railexits0607 = 0.190West Sutton railway station is in the
London Borough of Sutton inSouth London . The station is served byFirst Capital Connect trains, and is on the Thameslink loop. It is inTravelcard Zone 5 .History
Parliamentary approval to construct a railway line from Wimbledon to Sutton through what were then undeveloped rural areas had been obtained by the
Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) in 1910. The main supporters of the scheme were theLondon Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), theLondon and South Western Railway (L&SWR) and the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, nowLondon Underground 'sDistrict Line ). All held shares in the company and had rights to run trains over the line when built.World War I prevented any work taking place and by the early 1920s continuing financial support from the MDR meant that it had effectively taken control of the company. Through its ownership of the MDR, the London Electric Railway (LER, precursor of London Underground) was able to obtain approval to use part of the route for an extension of theCity and South London Railway (C&SLR, now theNorthern Line ) from Clapham Common through Morden to Sutton. The route would have seen Underground Northern Line trains running on surface tracks from Morden past the nearby Underground depot and on to theNetwork Rail alignment close to Morden South.The Southern Railway (SR, successor of the L&SWR and the LB&SCR after the 1923 Grouping of railways) objected to this encroachment into its area of operation and the loss of its passenger traffic to a more direct route. The two companies reached an agreement that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the LER giving up its rights over the W&SR route. The SR subsequently built the line, one of the last to be built in the London area. It opened on
5 January 1930 .Services
The typical off-peak service from the station is 2 trains per hour to Wimbledon (clockwise around the loop) and 2 trains per hour to Sutton (anticlockwise).
External links
* [http://www.sutton.gov.uk/leisure/heritage/sutton+wimbledon.htm London Borough of Sutton - Sutton Wimbledon Line]
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