North Downs Line
The North Downs Line (NDL) is operated by Great Western Railway from the county town of Reading in Berkshire, to Gatwick Airport via Guilford. The route was built by the South Eastern Railway. The North Downs Line has a ruling speed limit of 90mph and is partly electrified, with 750v DC third Rail.
Route
The line departs Reading before making a roughly south eastern route away from the GWML. Then the route makes it first stop at Wokingham which features a grade II listed footbridge at the Up end of the station.
On passing over Wokingham Junction we leave the third rail behind, for the route to Ash which is diesel only and includes stops at Crowthorne, Sandhurst, Blackwater, Farnborough North which until recently had a level crossing which has now been replaced by a fully accessible footbridge, North Camp and Ash. At Ash we re-join the third rail to Shalford, we then pass Wanborough which is only served in the peaks, Guilford.
Services
The North Downs Line operates, a semi-fast style service on all services, with three different calling patterns.
| North Downs Line off Peak service pattern | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service | Stopping Pattern | Frequency (Trains Per Hour) | Notes |
| Calling Pattern A | Reading, Wokingham, Crowthorne, Sandhurst, Blackwater, Farnborough North, North Camp, Ash, Guilford, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate, Redhill and Gatwick Airport | 1 train per hour | XX:24 off Reading and XX:59 off Gatwick Airport |
| Calling Pattern B | Reading, Wokingham, Blackwater, North Camp, Guilford, Shalford, Chilworth, Gomshall, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate, Redhill and Gatwick Airport | 0.5 train per hour | XX:54 off Reading and XX:29 off Gatwick Airport |
| Calling Pattern C | Reading, Wokingham, Blackwater, Farnborough North, North Camp, Guilford, Shalford, Dorking West, Dorking Deepdene, Betchworth, Reigate, Redhill and Gatwick Airport | 0.5 train per hour | XX:54 off Reading and XX:29 off Gatwick Airport |
| Calling Pattern D (Night Trial) | Reading, Wokingham, Blackwater, North Camp, Guilford, Dorking Deepdene, Reigate, Redhill and Gatwick Airport | 4 Trains Per Night | 1O95 22:36 Reading to Gatwick
1V95 00:24 Gatwick Airport to Reading (Sunday Only) 1O48 02:28 Reading to Gatwick (Friday Only) 1O50 03:30 Reading to Gatwick 1V28 04:00 Gatwick Airport to Reading |
The North Downs Line is currently undergoing a 4 month Night Trial from June to October to test if this can be made permeant, to help meet London Gatwick Airport requirement for a second runway of 54% of passengers arriving on Public Transport and the lack of Night service is seen as block over 30% of possible passengers from using Public Transport to get to London Gatwick Airport. This night service is being operated on Friday and Sunday nights only. [1]
Rolling Stock
The North Downs Line operates with 2 and 3 car class 165 Networker Turbos, there is a handful of 5 and 6 car workings however due to Short platforms along the line only the front unit is in use between Redhill and Reading with the rear units locked out of use. The North Downs Line was meant to receive the 4 car Tri-mode class 769 FLEX, however due to reliability issues this didn't happen and instead they were handed back to Porterbook in April 2023. As part of the class 769 project the platforms were extended to allow trains of around 80m to call there without the requirement SDO.
