Electrification Proposals
Electrification had been shelved prior to World War II as it was felt that little traffic would be generated. Unelectrified routes of the North Downs Line included Wokingham railway station to Ash railway station (Aldershot South Junction) and Shalford Junction to Reigate. In August 1981, Modern Railways magazine studied an electrification strategy for the then Southern Region of British Railways. The article saw potential on the route with the area having developed rapidly, and also with the prospect of Channel Tunnel traffic; cross-country passenger and freight workings might also be diverted along the route. Subsequently some of the routes considered were indeed electrified; other routes mentioned included South Croydon-Oxted-East Grinstead* (1987), Bournemouth-Weymouth (1988), Hilsea/Farlington Junction-St Denys/Eastleigh (1990) and Redhill-Tonbridge (at the time the furthest extent of North Downs Line services, in 1994).
According to internet sources, electrification of these sections of the North Downs Line was again discussed as part of the Blackwater Valley Rail Survey, in 1991. Motive power from the outset would have been the BR Mark 1-based electric stock classes, but the idea was scrapped when the conventional diesel multiple units on the region began to be replaced by the current Class 165/166 'Turbos'.
*Hurst Green/Tunbridge Wells to Eridge and Uckfield was also mentioned in the same scheme, but remains unelectrified today. The Tunbridge Wells-Eridge portion closed to BR passenger traffic in 1985.
After the end of British Rail privatised Railtrack managed to electrify a siding on the line at Wokingham.
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