There are also a couple of tricks they could employ to minimise the problem of down services in the morning peak. If Network Rail’s current ongoing analysis of future train movements is correct and their East Croydon proposals come to fruition then in the morning peak it should be possible to run a much more intensive peak period service than today without too many issues. Even if they do need to call at Purley then, providing they are not also calling at South Croydon and Purley Oaks, there will be the alternative of switching from fast to slow tracks just north of Purley – though this does mean crossing the up slow. If they do not call at Purley then they can travel via the fast lines and avoid South Croydon Junction altogether. The only trains that may be delayed would be the down slow trains travelling via Purley and calling at Purley. In any case, down trains to Oxted and beyond travelling via platform 5 at South Croydon would be unaffected by the ups. Providing a reliable service as described would mean that up trains would take priority over down trains at South Croydon Junction, but that should not be too much of a problem in the morning peak. This would be much better than the present situation, as both trains currently have to call at platform 4 at East Croydon, which inevitably delays one of them. Independently, another train from the Oxted lines could travel via platform 4 at South Croydon to the new platform 6 at East Croydon and beyond. A slow train from Purley could travel via platform 3 at South Croydon to the new platform 5 at East Croydon and beyond. If this is true then this would be a real game changer as far as the morning peak flows at South Croydon are concerned. Network Rail now think it may be possible to almost totally eliminate delays due to conflict in a northbound direction north of East Croydon. Things have moved on a bit since the final version of the Sussex Route Study was published.
The future impact of changes at East Croydon Indeed an emerging theme of re-organising East Croydon is that, if you sort things out properly north of East Croydon, there is much less that needs doing south of it. This means that radical grade separation at South Croydon, possibly involving the fast lines, if it ever had been considered and believed possible, will be much less of an issue if the East Croydon scheme gets the go-ahead. The latest published East Croydon scheme does, however, mean that it is only these services that will be a problem north of East Croydon. Even if the current proposals for East Croydon get implemented they will still mean conflicting movements for fast trains from Victoria that continue via Oxted. As we saw in our look at East Croydon this is far from ideal. The disadvantage with the arrangement from 1984 at South Croydon was that the trains to and from Oxted, which are fast north of East Croydon (and rarely call at South Croydon), had to use the slow lines. The junction was made much more complicated to allow for flexibility in use. The opportunity was taken to organise the remaining three lines in a much better way with a reversible middle track (track 4) between East and South Croydon. Historyįrom 1984 onwards the lines were swapped with the fast lines being on the western side with the lines at East Croydon being swapped a couple of years later. These need sorting out to get trains to or from the fast or slow lines to London Bridge or Victoria. Then there are also fast and slow lines from East Croydon and double track from West Croydon. Effectively the fast Brighton lines, the slow Brighton lines and the Oxted lines are all funnelled into East Croydon. To fully understand the complexity of all this though one also needs to take into account what happens just south of South Croydon station. Reference is often made to “East Croydon and the Selhurst triangle” in an attempt to identify the critical area that needs investigating in order to improve the Brighton Main Line. Although not actually at East Croydon, the junction is regarded by Network Rail as part of the East Croydon problem and believes it should not be considered in isolation. As such, not only is it an important junction, but also a source of delays – for there is no grade separation. It is here that trains to Oxted (East Grinstead and Uckfield services) join and leave the main line. Far more significant than the station is the junction just to the south of it.
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