Mottingham railway station

Mottingham railway station is a suburban station situated on Court Road between Eltham and Mottingham, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south-east London. The station is located in Travelcard Zone 4, on the Dartford Loop Line between Lee and New Eltham. The station is operated by Southeastern.

History
The station was first opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1866 as Eltham. In 1892 it was renamed Eltham & Mottingham. In 1927 it became Mottingham.

The goods yard on the down side to the west of the platforms included a large coal office. A footbridge linking the two platforms was opened in the 1890s. Half a dozen sidings used for rolling stock were built around 1900 on the down side opposite the goods yard.

A three-storey high substation was built next to the station when the Dartford Loop Line was electrified in 1926. The substation was demolished in 1957 later to be replaced by more powerful substations at New Eltham and Hither Green.

On 19 March 1946 the station was the location of a fatal accident when an electric passenger train collided with a stationary light engine that was waiting to move into the sidings. The driver of the passenger train was killed and 13 passengers injured.

In 1955 the platforms were lengthened to take ten carriage trains. The goods yard closed and five of the six rolling stock sidings were decommissioned in 1968. The signal box closed the following year. In 1992 the platforms were lengthened again and in 2012 the platforms are again being extended to take twelve carriage trains.

The up side ticket office has a mixture of structures, the white clapboard dating from the original station of 1866, with brown brick construction of 1957 and sliding doors installed in 1988.

Location
Mottingham Station is situated in the town of Mottingham close to the junction of Court Road and the A20 Sidcup bypass. The A20 road outside is a popular hitchiking spot to Dover.

The station is served by London bus routes 124, 126, 161, 624.

Facilities
The station has two platforms. Platform 1 the up platform for westbound services to London and Platform 2 the down platform for eastbound services to Kent. A ticket hall is situated on the up side but the station has no ticket gates. There is step free access to both platforms.

The station has a 177 space car park operated by Meteor Parking on behalf of Southeastern.

Services
All trains from Mottingham are operated by Southeastern, who also manage the station.

The Monday to Friday and Saturday daytime off peak service is:


 * 2tph to London Charing Cross calling at all stations to Hither Green then running fast to London Bridge
 * 2tph to London Cannon Street calling at all stations
 * 2tph to Gravesend via Dartford
 * 2tph to Crayford, then returning to London Cannon Street via Woolwich Arsenal

In the evening and on Sundays there is a half hourly service to London Charing Cross.