It branches off the South West Main Line at Hampton Court Junction, just south-west of Surbiton.

Off-peak services run twice per hour (once on Sundays) and are slower, stopping at all intermediate stations except between Surbiton and Wimbledon.

That scheme failed when the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) agreed to build the present route, including a branch from Effingham Junction to Leatherhead.

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway penetrated from the east as far as Epsom in 1847, and the LSWR reached the town with its own line in 1859.

In that year the Epsom and Leatherhead Railway opened: independent at first, it became jointly owned and operated by the LSWR and the LBSCR together.

There remained a large area between the LSWR main line and the Guildford branch on the one hand, and Leatherhead and other places on the east side.

[2][3] In 1880 a more ambitious scheme still was put forward: it was called the Guildford, Kingston and London Railway (GK&LR).

[2][5] People in the Cobham area had long complained about the failure of the LSWR – seen as an unresponsive monopoly – to connect their town to the railway network.

Negative views were expressed about the GK&LR scheme: it would cost about £1+3⁄4 million, partly due to the incorporation of lengthy tunnelling east of Kingston, yet it would be built to serve a sparsely populated district.

It required an impractical junction with the Metropolitan District Railway, needing passengers to continue to central London over the already congested Inner Circle line by trains stopping at each station.

Most significantly, while the District Railway supposedly backed the GK&LR, it had made no commitment or assistance of any kind.

The 1882 Act included powers for junctions from the new line Surbiton, Norbiton and Putney, and to make a spur to a new LSWR terminal at Pelham Street, Kensington.

[2] The construction of the Kingston and London Railway would cost £650,000, to be shared equally between the LSWR and the K&LR shareholders.

This was simply a crossing of the River Thames, and it was incorporated into the Wimbledon and West Metropolitan Junction scheme, authorised in that Act.

Stations were at London Road, Clandon, Horsley, Cobham, and Oxshott, and at Bookham on the Leatherhead branch.

[15] For many years the area served by the railway remained rural, and the hoped-for development in residential travel was very slow to take place.

[20] It had been intended to continue immediately to Guildford, but difficulties due to the war frustrated this, and in fact shortages of rolling stock forced the suspension of electric train movements to Claygate from June 1919.

[27] The line received the first post-World War 2EPB electric stock that became the standard for British Railways Southern Region for many years.

Very occasionally, during times of disrupted working, 4COR sets with 2HAL and 2BIL units that had been cascaded from the main line would be seen – the former causing substantial delays owing to the lack of doors for quick rush-hour loading.

On 9 May 2011 Network Rail applied to the local planning authority to extend the platforms at Hinchley Wood, Claygate, Oxshott and Cobham to take 10-car trains as part of a 2012/13 Network Rail plan that included Effingham Junction, Horsley, Clandon and London Road (Guildford).

[32][33] Currently the services to Guildford and London Waterloo are using Class 455 sets built in the early to mid-1980s, which have now all undergone an extensive refurbishment program which was completed in 2008.

In each case the drivers lost control of their trains due to unfamiliarity with the new style Westinghouse brake equipment.

The report of the Ministry of Transport Inspector notes that the three trains were all coming into the new terminal bay platform that had recently been installed for the electric services.