South Merton railway station


South Merton railway station is located in Morden, the administrative centre of the London Borough of Merton in South London. The station is served by Thameslink trains on the Sutton Loop Line. It is in Travelcard Zone 4.

History

Parliamentary approval for a line from Wimbledon to Sutton had been obtained by the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway in 1910 but work had been delayed by World War I. From the W&SR's inception, the District Railway was a shareholder of the company and had rights to run trains over the line when built. In the 1920s, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London planned, through its ownership of the DR and the City and South London Railway, to use part of the W&SR's route for an extension of the C&SLR to Sutton. The SR objected and an agreement was reached 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.
In the original 1910 permission, the station was named "Merton Park" due to its proximity to the Merton Park estate then being laid out to the north and Merton Park golf course to the south which was subsequently developed for housing. The station opened as the temporary terminus of the line when the first section opened from Wimbledon on 7 July 1929. The remainder of the line to Sutton opened on 5 January 1930.

Services

The typical service pattern operated by Thameslink is 2 trains per hour to St Albans City via Wimbledon and 2 trains per hour to Sutton. Services to Sutton then continue on to St Albans City via Mitcham Junction. Some late evening services to St Albans City via Wimbledon are extended to Bedford. On Sundays, daytime services are extended to Luton.
On weekdays there are also peak time services operated by Southern. In the morning peak Southern services operate anticlockwise around the loop to London Bridge via Sutton and Mitcham Junction; and in the evening peak services run clockwise to London Bridge via Wimbledon and Tooting.
Thameslink services are usually operated by Class 700 trains which have replaced the older Class 319 units. Southern services are mainly operated by 8 carriage Class 455 units.

Connections

routes 164 and 413 serve the station.
The station is also about an 800m walk away from Morden Underground Station which is served by the Northern line.