Until the early 1980s, it was possible to catch a direct express train to the coast from Sutton to Bognor Regis, Chichester or Portsmouth. Since the mid-1980s, these express services have been routed via East Croydon in order to serve Gatwick Airport; passengers from Sutton for the south coast now have to change at Horsham, or alternatively travel to West Croydon station and walk, take the bus or use Croydon's Tramlink service to reach East Croydon station to continue from there.
Today, travel to London Victoria takes just over 25 minutes on the direct route via Carshalton and Hackbridge.
Layout
The four platforms at Sutton station are numbered 1 to 4 from north to south. Platforms 1 and 2 are on the lines to Wimbledon, Epsom, Leatherhead, Dorking, and Horsham. Platforms 3 and 4 are on the Epsom Downs Line, which becomes single-track about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) south of the station. Platforms 1 and 3 are used by services from outer termini to Central London. Trains from Central London use platforms 2 and 4. Terminating trains which return to central London generally use platform 4.
Platforms 1 and 2 can accommodate 12-coach trains, and were used by the express services to Bognor Regis and Portsmouth Harbour until they were diverted in the early 1980s to serve Gatwick Airport. Nowadays all trains calling at Sutton are formed of ten coaches or fewer. At the London end of platform 1, there are the remains of a fifth platform, which was a bay for local services via Mitcham Junction.
Two waiting rooms serve the station. An M&S Food to Go shop sits adjacent to the concourse within the station building.[5]
Three lifts serve all platforms – one each for platforms one, two/three and four.
The installation of a side entrance serving the Quadrant was completed in summer 2014.[citation needed]
The SR objected and an agreement was reached that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the UERL 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 both the 1910 and 1920s proposals, the next station towards Wimbledon was to be Cheam on Cheam Road, but the SR dropped this station and replaced it with West Sutton station.[7] The line opened on 5 January 1930 when full services on the line were extended from South Merton.[6]
During the peak hours, the station is served by an additional half-hourly service to London Victoria via Norbury and a half-hourly service between Epsom and London Victoria via Hackbridge.
On Saturday evenings (after approximately 18:45) and on Sundays, there is no service south of Dorking to Horsham.
In 2018, Transport for London (TfL) proposed three routes for the Sutton Link project, targeting South Wimbledon, Colliers Wood, and Wimbledon. In February 2020, TfL approved the route to Colliers Wood. According to a now-deleted consultation, the Sutton Link was expected to reduce public transport journey times from Sutton town centre to Colliers Wood by up to 18 minutes (a 50% reduction) and could accommodate approximately 2,200 passengers per hour. [11] However, the project was paused later in 2020 due to funding challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.[12] In 2024, the newly elected MP for Sutton, Luke Taylor, pledged to lobby to make it happen. [13][better source needed][14]
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