North Downs Line - History of The Line's Construction

History of The Line's Construction

The line was authorised by Acts of Parliament in 1846 and 1847 and most of it was constructed by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway Company (RG&RRC), opening in 1849. (A central section of the line near Guildford was built by a predecessor of the LSWR.) The stated objective of the company was to

"secure through traffic passing between the West, North and Midlands and the Channel Ports avoiding the congestion of London and thus saving time, distance and expense."

Although the company had some independent shareholders, it was closely associated with the South Eastern Railway (SER). The original intention was for the SER to build part of the line itself, but this proposal was rejected by Parliament. The independence of the company was only a formality to satisfy Parliament. The two companies had some common directors; a SER engineer controlled the construction of the line. As intended at outset, the line was leased to the SER in 1850, and the two companies finally merged in 1852. The company's relationship with the GWR is described as "enigmatic". The GWR initially offered the company the use of its facilities at Reading station but terms could not be agreed and a separate station was built.

The SER operated the line from its opening, and ran passenger services on it from Reading to London Charing Cross via Redhill. Even today, the distances along the line are measured from the terminus of the former SER.

Read more about this topic:  North Downs Line

Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history, line and/or construction:

    This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.
    Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)

    Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)

    Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    What comes over a man, is it soul or mind
    That to no limits and bounds he can stay confined?
    You would say his ambition was to extend the reach
    Clear to the Arctic of every living kind.
    Why is his nature forever so hard to teach
    That though there is no fixed line between wrong and right,
    There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed?
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    There’s no art
    To find the mind’s construction in the face.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)