Letter: Rail Link Between Guildford and Cranleigh in an Ideal World

Published on: 15 May, 2020
Updated on: 15 May, 2020

Cranleigh station in 1965.
Picture supplied by Ben Darnton.

From Ollie Taiani

In response to: We Will Work With Anyone Interested in Air Quality

I am a resident of Cranleigh and regularly travel to Guildford either for work or leisure. In an ideal world, there would be a good, fast public transport method to get to Guildford just as there used to be the rail link until it was closed under the Beeching Report.

The bus service, unfortunately, is slower than a car and just as expensive, so no one uses it unless they have no other option. I think a lot of congestion would be relieved by creating a new transport link from Cranleigh, possibly using the existing railway foundations and there have been rumours and campaigns for this to happen over the past few years.

It was definitely a mistake cutting the Horsham to Guildford line all those years ago because it would be very well used today, particularly with the additional developments in and around Cranleigh and Dunsfold. I do cycle from Cranleigh to Guildford along the old railway line quite often and every time I just wish it was on a train instead of on my bike.

If the council are interested in developing this public transport route then I believe there would be a lot of support for it.

Responses to Letter: Rail Link Between Guildford and Cranleigh in an Ideal World

Bibhas Neogi Reply

May 15, 2020 at 10:28 pm

Surrey County Council should get the reports on this updated as recent and planned developments in Cranleigh and Dunsfold will have changed the demand considerably.

Please see the report: ‘The future of the Downslink‘.

The report states that, “The reopening of the line was looked at again recently in 2013, as part of Surrey County Council’s rail strategy and was still not considered to be viable,” a strange conclusion considering daily congestion (prior to Covid-19 restrictions) that happened on the A281.
Jim Allen Reply

May 16, 2020 at 10:55 am

I seem to remember, back 20 years ago, a “survey” of people asking if they wanted to have the trains back to Cranleigh. We lived on the common there, those many years ago.

It was only after the results of the survey appeared did the residents of Cranleigh hear about it! It was overwhelmingly against the re-introduction. Never did find out who ran the survey and who actually responded. Perhaps a new survey with proper advertising should be carried out.