Trains to Ockley - Station Details and further Information on Ockley Train Services
Ockley train station serves the villages of Ockley & Capel in Surrey, England being situated two miles to the east of Ockley and just over one mile to the west of Capel . The station is 29 miles south of London Victoria station. Ockley is managed by Southern who also provide all the services.
For most of the day there is only one train per hour southbound to Horsham via Warnham and there is also only one train per hour northbound towards Victoria via Holmwood, Dorking and then onwards via Sutton and Clapham Junction. However in the Monday to Friday morning peak northbound and the evening peak southbound there are some additional services on an approximately half hourly basis.
For most of the day there is only one train per hour southbound to Horsham via Warnham and there is also only one train per hour northbound towards Victoria via Holmwood, Dorking and then onwards via Sutton and Clapham Junction. However in the Monday to Friday morning peak northbound and the evening peak southbound there are some additional services on an approximately half hourly basis.
There is only a very limited mid and late evening service Southbound from Monday to Friday (there being no train from London Victoria serving the station after the 1920 service on Mondays to Fridays until the final 2326 service that was introduced in late 2004 as a result of a long running campaign with the train operating company over several years by a local resident) and no evening service on a Saturday and no service at all on a Sunday. Unfortunately the current train operator, Southern, has proven resistant to almost all other suggested improvements to train services on the line including plugging the yawning gap on weekdays between the 1920 service from London Victoria and the 2326 service with at least one more train or by operating a once every two hour service on both Saturday and Sunday instead of an hourly service only on Saturday. They also seem unwilling to address there being a train destination and expected arrival time display indicator on the northbound platform but not on the southbound platform.
The station has a Permit To Travel machine but still has no proper ticket machine despite this station now being as well used as Boxhill & Westhumble station that does enjoy such facilities. The station also has free parking available for around 16 cars in the Station Approach but these spaces are now often full after 7.30am in the morning on a weekday and Southern has so far shown little interest in addressing the issue. If the car parking at Ockley is full when arriving by car the only option is either to risk parking on an area of double yellow line (not currently enforced) in Station Approach, to risk parking outside Station Approach in the unlit Coles Lane (inadvisable if returning after dark as there is a high risk of your vehicle being damaged by passing traffic at night) or to drive north on the A24 to Beare Green village where there is a significantly more reliably available supply of free safe parking available on the village road next to Holmwood station.
It is important to note that this station is a relatively minor rural station and that consequently there is no taxi rank service available from the station and that any taxi from it would therefore have to be summoned by telephone from Dorking or Horsham at what is likely to be a substantial call out cost (although there is a BT Payphone in front of the station building if you have no working mobile phone with you it now only takes credit or debit cards and does not take cash). It is therefore only advisable to use this station if either driving to or from it or alternatively if travelling there on foot from Capel village. The walk to Ockley village on an unlit country lane with no pavement is actually much longer than to Capel village and should only be contemplated either during the hours of daylight or otherwise at night only if armed with a good torch and preferably also only if wearing reflective clothing.
It should be noted that Ockley station is currently in the same fare zone for Southern's Super Offpeak Day Return ticket as Dorking station for which the return fare is just £7.00 to London Victoria only (not valid to Waterloo, London Bridge or other London termini) on all trains arriving at Victoria after 11 am. This combined with the free parking at the station, the now high cost of parking in the car park at Dorking station and also the introduction of the one late evening service to Ockley from London on Monday to Friday seems to explain the significant increase in the level of passenger use of this station (especially by car based users) over the course of the last 10 years in spite of the ever slower journey times provided on the line by Southern (these now vary between 63 and 76 minutes to London Victoria compared to times of between 51 and 60 minutes as recently as 1997). |
