Coulsdon South railway station

Coulsdon South railway station serves Coulsdon in the London Borough of Croydon, and is in Travelcard Zone 6, on the Brighton Main Line. The station is served by Southern.

History
Coulsdon is on a stretch of line between Croydon and Redhill which the UK Parliament insisted should be shared by the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) route to Brighton, and the South Eastern Railway (SER) route to Dover. As a result there have been a number of railway stations at Coulsdon.

Stoat's Nest
The first station in Coulsdon was opened by the L&BR in July 1841, named after a nearby settlement. It lay one mile south of Godstone Road (later called Purley), and was the first station to serve Epsom Downs Racecourse, some eight miles distant. It was in service until December 1856, by which time the L&BR successor, the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) had its own route from Croydon to Epsom.

Coulsdon South
This station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) on 1 October 1889. The line is on a steep gradient climbing towards Merstham Tunnel. It has two platforms. It was originally called Coulsdon and Cane Hill, referring to the nearby psychiatric hospital: a covered way, supposedly built because of the hospital, has been removed.

David Bowie's half-brother, a patient at the nearby Cane Hill psychiatric hospital, committed suicide by lying down on the tracks at Coulsdon South station.

Ticketing
The station remains staffed for most of the operational day, with a booking office located on the up (west) side of the station. At the entrance to the ticket office from the station approach road, there are two self-service ticket machines, one of which, most unusually, is wall-mounted. A PERTIS self-service 'Permit to Travel' ticket machine was previously provided here but has been removed. Automatic Ticket Barriers were installed at the station in spring 2011

Other Stations in Coulsdon

 * Stoats Nest for Coulsdon and Cane Hill (later Coulsdon North) was opened on 8 November 1899, by the LB&SCR on their Quarry Line which bypassed Redhill. It closed 3 October 1983.
 * Smitham (later Coulsdon Town) was opened in 1904 by the SER on their Tattenham Corner Line and is named after another nearby settlement. This station was renamed from Smitham in 2011 as part of Southern Railway's new franchise agreement. This change was made as a result of a local consultation carried out by Croydon Council and it intended to better reflect the location of the station near Coulsdon town centre.

Services
The typical off-peak train service per hour is:


 * 4 trains per hour (tph) to London Bridge (Southern)
 * 2 calling at Purley, East Croydon and Norwood Junction
 * 2 calling at Purley, East Croydon, Norwood Junction, New Cross Gate and London Bridge
 * 2tph to Horsham calling at Merstham, Redhill, Earlswood (Surrey) (1tph), Salfords (1tph), Horley, Gatwick Airport, Three Bridges, Crawley, Ifield, Faygate (1tph) and Littlehaven (Southern)
 * 1tph to Tonbridge, calling at Redhill, Nutfield, Godstone, Edenbridge, Penshurst and Leigh. There was a service to Tunbridge Wells operated by Southeastern, but this was replaced by the Southern service to Tonbridge in December 2008.
 * 1tph to Reigate, calling at Merstham and Redhill

On Sundays this is reduced to:
 * 1tph to London Bridge, calling at Purley, East Croydon and Norwood Junction.
 * 1tph to Horsham, calling at Merstham, Redhill, Horley and then as above. This train also serves Earlswood and Salfords during the summer timetable (May–September)
 * Additionally, during the summer timetable the service to London Bridge is increased to 2tph with 1tph to Tonbridge calling at Merstham, Redhill, Nutfield, Godstone, Edenbridge, Penshurst and Leigh.