is a railway station located on the boundary of the
Reigate And Banstead and
Epsom And Ewell boroughs of
Surrey with the railway to the north forming a continuation of the boundary.
The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by
Southern , and is part of the
Sutton & Mole Valley Line services.
The typical off-peak service from the station is one train per hour to
London Victoria via
Sutton ,
West Croydon and
Norbury . After 7pm these services run via
Crystal Palace rather than Norbury.
With high levels of passengers travelling to
Epsom for horse races, it became clear that a station near the course was needed. Attempts to build one immediately next to it were heavily opposed by the
Epsom Grandstand Association and eventually land was purchased half a mile from the course. The station was opened on
May 22 1865 on the
London, Brighton And South Coast Railway 's extension from Sutton. The line had double track and a nine-platform station with a large building.
With the opening of
Tattenham Corner Railway Station much closer to the racecourse on
June 4 1901 (
Derby Day ) traffic declined, helped in particular by the
Royal Train changing its destination to Tattenham Corner in the
1920s . Services were cut back repeatedly over subsequent decades. In
1972 Epsom Downs cut the number of working platforms to just four, and following the destruction by fire of the Epsom Downs signal box in November
1981 almost the entire branch was reduced to single track operation in October
1982 .
In the mid-
1980s the station was replaced by a new site several hundred metres up the line, with the old station and platforms demolished and the land in between given over to a major housing development.
