The station was opened as
Smitham on 1 January 1904 and was briefly closed between 1 January 1917 and 1 January 1919 during the
First World War. It lies on a sharp curve, where the line swings away westwards from the
Brighton Main Line. It is immediately adjacent to the closed
Coulsdon North station on the main line, whose passenger traffic was diverted here when the latter closed on 3 October 1983. Some
Tattenham Corner line trains terminated at Smitham before returning to London. Still, nowadays the usual off-peak service is two trains per hour in each direction between
London Bridge and Tattenham Corner. An hourly shuttle service used to operate during weekday off-peak hours between
Purley and Tattenham Corner, but this was withdrawn in February 2015. Services to London Victoria were withdrawn in 2021 due to the pandemic The Coulsdon relief road, opened on 18 December 2006 as part of the
A23, passes underneath the station, requiring some rearrangement and refurbishment of the platform access routes. There is no direct access to the London-bound platform now; access is via the down platform and a new footbridge or lift.
Network Rail constructed a new modular station building on the downside of the line and a standard-pattern accessible footbridge, which opened in 2010. There is no
PERTIS self-service 'Permit to Travel' ticket machine. As part of the retender of
Southern's franchise in 2009, the
Department for Transport requested that, in response to lobbying by Croydon Council, the new company look into a better name for the station, as "Smitham" is no longer used as the name of the local area. Coulsdon Town was chosen after a public vote. The change took place on Sunday ,22 May 2011. Evening services to the station were improved in December 2010. == Services ==