Wandsworth Road railway station

Wandsworth Road

Wandsworth Road Location of Wandsworth Road in Greater London
Location	Clapham
Local authority	London Borough of Lambeth
Managed by	Southern
Station code	WWR
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	2
National Rail annual entry and exit
2004–05	64,605
2005–06	66,787
2006–07	164,030
2007–08	138,798
2008–09	166,326
Original company	London, Chatham and Dover Railway
1 March 1863	Opened
Lists of stations	DLR · Underground · National Rail · Tramlink
External links	Departures • Layout
	Facilities • Buses

Wandsworth Road railway station is on the South London Line from London Victoria to London Bridge (London, England).

It is operated by Southern. The next stations are Battersea Park to the west, towards Victoria and Clapham High Street to the east, towards London Bridge.

History

A 1912 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Wandsworth Road railway station

The station was opened on 1 March 1863. It was partially closed on 3 April 1916, but closed completely on 19 May 1926; . The former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway platforms reopened on 20 September 1926. The former South Eastern & Chatham Line platforms closed in 1916 have since been demolished.

Wandsworth Road is the terminus of an unusual 'Parliamentary' service running Mondays-Fridays from Olympia. It runs once to Wandsworth Road (arriving at 10:14) and departs Wandsworth Road at 16:12 for Olympia. This service came about because of the withdrawal of the Cross-Country Birmingham-Brighton rail link of which a single service per day was timetabled to run via this route. As the Department for Transport had not followed proper procedure, it was necessary to run a revenue earning train on part of the railway line used by Birmingham-Brighton trains. This was the Latchmere Curve which, without the Birmingham-Brighton train, would have no rail service running over it. As a result to fulfil the legal niceties, the DfT instituted the Olympia-Wandsworth Road link (hence it is called a 'Parliamentary service'). This was featured in a BBC news article.

Services

Typical off peak service is two trains per hour in each direction.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Battersea Park		Southern Inner South London Line		Clapham High Street
Imperial Wharf		Southern Olympia to Wandsworth Road		Terminus
		Under construction
London Overground
Clapham Junction Terminus		East London Line		Clapham High Street towards Dalston Junction

Future

London Overground

The station is to be incorporated into London Overground through the newly extended East London Line, under phase 2 of construction. Mayor Boris Johnson announced the go-ahead for the extension on 16 February 2009 and the London Overground service is expected to be open in May 2012 and the existing South London Line service withdrawn.

However, lobbying is underway for TfL to run Overground trains directly to Victoria either from December 2012 or from 2014 when a bulk of Southeastern's network is expected to transfer to TfL. Diverting two of the ELLX2 trains to Victoria at peak-times is considered by many to be more likely to attract passengers than running 4 trains an hour all-day to Clapham Junction.^{[citation needed]}

Changes to Parliamentary Service

As of 12 December 2011 the Parliamentary train service to Kensington Olympia has begun in Clapham High Street, departing at 16:11. However the morning 10:02 departure from Kensington Olympia still terminates at Wandsworth Road. Campaigners with Network Rail and Southern Trains are looking at ways of running the service to and from Clapham High Street from May 2012. Preliminary indications are that if the current 10:02 service were to leave Kensington Olympia 1 minute earlier, it could run to Clapham High Street and terminate.

Transport links

London bus routes 77, 87, 452 and night routes N87.

External links

• Train times and station information for Wandsworth Road railway station from National Rail