Wimbledon station
Wimbledon station is a
National Rail,
London Underground, and
Tramlink station located in
Wimbledon in the
London Borough of Merton. The station serves as a junction for services from London Underground
District Line and National Rail operators
South West Trains,
First Capital Connect and
Tramlink Route 1. Some early morning services on the First Capital Connect route are provided by
Southern. The station is in
Travelcard Zone 3.
The first railway station in Wimbledon was opened on
21 May 1838 when the
London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) opened its line from its terminus at
Nine Elms in
Battersea to
Woking. The original station was to the south of the current station on the opposite side of the Wimbledon Bridge.
On
22 October 1855 the
Wimbledon & Croydon Railway (W&CR) opened its line from Wimbledon to
West Croydon via
Mitcham and on
1 October 1868 the
Tooting, Merton & Wimbledon Railway (TM&WR) opened a line to
Tooting Junction (now just Tooting station).
On
3 June 1889 the
Metropolitan District Railway (now
London Underground's
District Line) opened the extension of its line from
Putney Bridge, making Wimbledon station the new terminus of that branch and providing Wimbledon with a direct connection to the developing London Underground system. The station was rebuilt on its current site for the opening of this service.
District Line steam-hauled services were replaced by an electric services from
27 August 1905. Mainline suburban services were gradually replaced by electric rolling stock either side of the first world war although long distance journeys continued to use steam-haulage until much later.
The station was rebuilt again with its current
Portland stone entrance building by the
Southern Railway (SR, the post
Grouping successor to the L&SWR) in the late
1920s as part of the SR's construction of the line to
Sutton. Parliamentary approval for this line had been obtained by the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in
1910 but work had never been carried out and it was only after the
City and South London Railway (precursor to London Underground's
Northern Line) made proposals to use part of the route to continue that line to Sutton that the SR was encouraged to build the line itself to protect its passenger services from the Sutton hub. The Wimbledon to Sutton line, one of the last to be built in the London area, opened on
5 January 1930 and was an electrified service from the outset.
On
2 June 1997 the Wimbledon to
West Croydon line was closed by
Railtrack for conversion to operation as part of the
Tramlink tram operations. Part of platform 10 was utilised for the single track terminus of
tramlink route 1 and rail tracks and infrastructure were replaced with those for the tram system. The new service opened on
30 May 2000.
If
Crossrail Line 2 is built, one of the route options involves taking over the Wimbledon branch of the District Line as far as
Parsons Green, and routing trains via
Chelsea and central London to
Hackney and on to
Leytonstone tube station and beyond. This would provide another set of transport links for the area.
There is also a proposal for an extension of the Tramlink services running from Wimbledon to
Sutton via
Morden,
St. Helier and Rose Hill. This scheme would require some rearrangement of platforms and tracks within the station as the single platform currently in use would not be able to handle the additional traffic.
The typical off-peak service frequency is:
*South West Trains
** 16tph (trains per hour) to
Waterloo** 4tph to
Guildford** 2tph to
Chessington South** 2tph to
Dorking** 2tph to
Hampton Court** 2tph to
Shepperton** 2tph to
Woking** 2tph to Waterloo via
Kingston &
Richmond*First Capital Connect
** 2tph to
Luton** 2tph to
Sutton*London Underground
** 6tph to
Upminster via Tower Hill
** 6tph to
Edgware Road via
High Street Kensington*Tramlink
** 6tph to
Elmers End* Wimbledon station is the only London station that provides an interchange between rail, underground and tramlink services
* Wimbledon station was the most southerly point on the Underground system until the nearby
Morden Underground station opened in
1926* Part of the route of the W&CR through Mitcham reused the route of the
Surrey Iron Railway that had closed in
1846* Side entrance to Wimbledon station shown in
1955. This entrance has been rebuilt as part of the Centre Court shopping centre development.
