Fratton railway station

Fratton
Looking North-West
Location
Place	Fratton
Local authority	Portsmouth
Coordinates	50.7964°N 1.0740°W / 50.7964; -1.0740
Operations
Station code	FTN
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	3
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	1.246 million
2005/06 *	1.289 million
2006/07 *	1.369 million
2007/08 *	1.465 million
2008/09 *	1.577 million
2009/10 *	1.486 million
History
Original company	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
1 July 1885	Opened (Fratton)
4 July 1905	Renamed (Fratton and Southsea)
1 December 1921	Renamed (Fratton)
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Fratton from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Fratton railway station is a railway station in Portsmouth, located near Fratton Park, the stadium of association football (soccer) club Portsmouth F.C..

It is located on the Portsmouth Direct Line which runs between London (London Waterloo) and Portsmouth (Portsmouth Harbour).

Facilities

The station includes a staffed ticket office, toilets, a light refreshment facility, car parking and a taxi rank. The three passenger platforms are connected via a footbridge. It is also the station referred to in the famous Portsmouth FC song: 'You'll never make the station'.

Normally, platforms 2 and 3 serve Portsmouth & Southsea and Portsmouth Harbour, with platform 1 serving all other destinations. Platforms 2 and 3 are also signalled to allow northbound passenger departures.

History

The railway line through Fratton was planned by the Brighton and Chichester Railway as part of the Chichester to Portsmouth Branch Railway, approved in 1845. The line was completed in 1847, the Brighton and Chichester railway merging with several other companies to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846, who went on to operate the line. Fratton was once the junction for the Southsea Railway which closed in 1914.

Portsmouth Area Resignalling (PARS)

The Portsmouth Area Resignalling project was instigated in late 2006, aiming to improve the flexibility of the track layout in the Fratton area. Platform 1 became the Up Main, Platform 3 became the Down Main with Platform 2 as a bidirectional through platform (although the main function of platform 2 is down line trains). Prior to the project, trains could not reverse south to north at Fratton in service.

The work, scheduled by Network Rail to take place between 23 December 2006 and 4 February 2007, was subject to a massive overrun. The works were first extended six weeks into mid-March 2007 but in late February it became obvious that there were major problems with the new equipment being installed by the contractor Siemens AG.

Until 1 April 2007 there were only three trains per hour between Fratton and Portsmouth Harbour with the remaining services terminating at Fratton and passengers using a replacement bus service. After the 2 April 2007 there were five trains per hour running between Fratton and Portsmouth - three South West Trains services, one Southern service and one First Great Western service with some services still terminating at Fratton with passengers forced to change to continue their journey. The "six week project" was eventually completed in October 2007 - some ten months after it started.

New DDA compliant footbridge planned

A new footbridge is now operational, linking the island platform (platforms 2 and 3) with the Up Main platform (1). This has stairs and lifts to allow disabled users full access to all trains, with lifts designed for easy wheelchair use.

Motive power depots

The London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly built a motive power depot at Fratton in 1891, replacing an earlier one at Portsmouth Town station. It was of the double roundhouse type. It came under the ownership of Southern Railway (Great Britain) in 1923 and British Railways in 1948. This building was badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War but repaired in 1948. It closed 2 November 1959, but the building continued to be used for stabling locomotives for several years. They were demolised in 1969. Fratton Traction Maintenance Depot, operated by South West Trains now occupies part of the site.

References

Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland, S.K. Baker ISBN 0-86093-553-1

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hilsea		Southern West Coastway Line		Portsmouth & Southsea
Hilsea		South West Trains Portsmouth Direct Line (stopping services)		Portsmouth & Southsea
Havant		South West Trains Portsmouth Direct Line		Portsmouth & Southsea
Cosham		First Great Western West Coastway Line		Portsmouth & Southsea
Havant
	Disused railways
Terminus		Southsea Railway		Jessie Road Bridge Halt

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  Station approach

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  Same building looking from platform

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  Up platform

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  Marshalling yard