Morden South railway station is in
Morden in the London Borough of Merton. The station is served by First
Capital Connect trains, and is on the Thameslink loop. It is in Travelcard
Zone 4.
The station is very close to the Bait-ul-Futuh Mosque.
Parliamentary approval for a line from Wimbledon to Sutton had been obtained
by the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) in 1910 but work had been delayed
by World War I. From the W&SR's inception, the MDR was a shareholder of the
company and had rights to run trains over the line when built. In the 1920s,
the London Electric Railway (LER, precursor of London Underground) planned,
through its ownership of the MDR, to use part of the route for an extension
of the City and South London Railway (C&SLR, now the Northern line) to
Sutton. The SR objected and an agreement was reached that enabled the C&SLR
to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the LER giving up its rights over
the W&SR route. The SR subsequently built the line, one of the last to be
built in the London area. The station opened on 5 January 1930 when full
services on the line were extended from South Merton.
Formerly, a siding served an Express Dairies bottling plant adjacent to the
station. Until closure in 1992 milk trains delivered milk to the plant for
bottling and distribution. The station staff were responsible for handling
the switching points to enable these trains to depart from the main line.
Shunting was latterly undertaken by Hunslet Engine Company "Yardmaster"
locomotive No.HE5308/60 named David. The bottling plant closed in 1992.