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The Oxted Line is a railway line in southern England, originally operated jointly by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the South Eastern Railway. It is now part of the Southern franchise. The line diverges from the London to Brighton main line at South Croydon. At Hurst Green it splits, one branch terminating at East Grinstead, the other at Uckfield. Both branches formerly continued further: * from East Grinstead to Haywards Heath, Lewes and Tunbridge Wells. Part of the route south of East Grinstead is preserved as the Bluebell Line. * Ashurst and Eridge on the Uckfield line were junctions for Tunbridge Wells (see the Spa Valley Railway below), and Eridge also for Eastbourne. * from Uckfield trains to Lewes and Brighton. A short stretch at Isfield (between Uckfield and Lewes) is preserved as the Lavender Line. At Selsdon, north of Sanderstead there was until 1983 a junction with the Woodside and South Croydon Joint line to Elmers End. Between Hurst Green and Lingfield there was a connection with the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. ==History== A line was proposed in 1864 from Croydon to Tunbridge Wells via Oxted by a group of former LB&SCR directors. Their proposal for the Surrey and Sussex Junction Railway (S&SJR) was to have the scheme underwritten and then operated by the LB&SCR. However, the South Eastern Railway (SER) saw the S&SJR, and particularly the involvement of the LB&SCR chairman Leo Schuster, as a significant incursion into its territory. In addition to creating a rival to its own line to Tunbridge Wells, the SER saw the LB&SCR's direct involvement as contravening an 1849 agreement between the two companies.〔 In retaliation, the SER put forward proposals for a 'London, Lewes and Brighton' railway together with the London Chatham and Dover Railway.〔 As a result of these difficulties and the financial crisis of 1866-7, the LB&SCR signed a new agreement with the SER in which it withdrew support for the S&SJR, and the SER abandoned its scheme. Work on the S&SJR immediately ceased, but the holding company remained in existence until 1869, when it was merged with the LB&SCR and then closed.〔 On 10 March 1884, the LB&SCR and the SER formed a joint venture company, the Croydon, Oxted & East Grinstead Railway. Surveyed and engineered by the LB&SCR's Chief Engineer Frederick Banister, the proposed route in part used trackbed constructed for but never used by the S&SJR.〔 The line was jointly owned and operated until , when it split into three: *to Edenbridge junction, allowing connection to the SER's Redhill to Tonbridge Line *to , owned by the LB&SCR but jointly operated with the SER *to , owned by the LB&SCR with junctions with the Wealden Line, the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line, and the Cuckoo Line The East Grinstead branch was electrified in 1987 at 750 V DC third rail. The Uckfield branch is not electrified, and is worked by Class 171 diesel multiple units, which replaced Class 205 and Class 207 DEMUs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oxted Line」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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