Eridge | |
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Location | |
Place | Eridge |
Local authority | District of Wealden |
Grid reference | TQ542345 |
Operations | |
Station code | ERI |
Managed by | Southern |
Number of platforms | 3 |
DfT category | E |
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
|
Annual rail passenger usage* | |
2011/12 | 0.138 million |
2012/13 | 0.136 million |
2013/14 | 0.136 million |
2014/15 | 0.135 million |
2015/16 | 0.125 million |
History | |
Key dates | Opened 3 August 1868 |
Pre-grouping | London, Brighton and South Coast Railway |
Post-grouping |
Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways Network SouthEast |
National Rail – UK railway stations | |
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Eridge from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
Eridge railway station serves a rural district around Eridge in East Sussex. Mainline train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line. Also heritage services connecting to Groombridge, High Rocks and Tunbridge Wells West are run by the Spa Valley Railway. There are good opportunities for walks from the station into the High Weald. The station has a small car park and there is a pub next to the station called the Huntsman.
The typical off-peak service is one train per hour to London Bridge via Oxted and one train per hour to Uckfield. Spa Valley Railway services operate between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells West on selected days to connect to Oxted Line services.
At the time the station was opened, the village of Eridge Green was owned by the nearby Eridge Park, seat of the Earls of Abergavenny.
The station used to be a junction for services running towards Tonbridge via Tunbridge Wells West (closed 1985), to Eastbourne (via Heathfield and Hailsham) Cuckoo Line closed 1965 and to East Grinstead (closed 1967).
When the Uckfield line was singled in January 1990 all trains used the former up line and only the former up island platform was used by British Rail. The former down island platform was then abandoned but was restored by the Spa Valley Railway, a preserved railway company, who reopened the railway between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells West on 25 March 2011, with trains using the former down line for about 1 mile (1.6 km) north to Birchden Junction where the parallel single lines diverge.