Orpingtonrailway station is on the South Eastern Main Line, serving the town of Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley, south-east London. It is down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between and stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 6. The station has eight platforms. Platform 1 is a bay platform which is only occasionally used for Thameslink services. Platform 2 is used for fast services to Charing Cross or Cannon Street. Platforms 3 and 4 are an island, 3 used by trains towards Ashford International or Tunbridge Wells and 4 by stopping services from Sevenoaks to Charing Cross or Cannon Street. Platform 5 hosts the Sevenoaks slows with platforms 6-8 being bay platforms used by services starting at Orpington towards Charing Cross, London Victoria, Cannon Street and Luton/Bedford. At the country end, the four tracks become two. At the London end there is a four-road sidings, where trains are stabled and cleaned. There are two entrances, both with ticket offices and ticket barriers, the main one on the platform 1/2 side, the other on the platforms 5-8 side. Access to platforms is via an underground subway or via a new bridge opened in 2008 which incorporates lift access to all platforms.
History
The station was opened on 2 March 1868 by the South Eastern Railway, when the SER opened its cut-off line between Chislehurst and Sevenoaks. Previously, trains between London and Tunbridge Wells had taken a circuitous route via Redhill. The line was widened and the station rebuilt in 1904, expanding to six platforms. Third rail electrification reached Orpington in 1925, and extended to Sevenoaks in 1935. About this time the Southern Heights Light Railway was proposed, which would have diverged from the main line south of Orpington and finished at. Crofton Roman Villa was partly destroyed by a railway cutting in the late 1800s but was rediscovered in 1926 when work was carried out to the area to the west of the station entrance as an entrance to a new council building. Platforms 7 and 8 were built in the early 1990s on the site of former carriage sidings. In 2008, the station became fully accessible following the opening of a new footbridge providing lift access to all platforms. In 2013, the former steam locomotive shed is still standing, converted to offices. In 2014 the car park was rebuilt with 2 storeys to increase capacity.
