Winchester railway station

This article is about a railway station in England. For the light-rail station in California, see Winchester Transit Center.

Winchester
Winchester railway station
Location
Place	Winchester
Local authority	City of Winchester
Operations
Station code	WIN
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	3.161 million
2005/06 *	3.288 million
2006/07 *	3.465 million
2007/08 *	3.721 million
2008/09 *	3.982 million
2009/10 *	4.020 million
History
Opened 10 June 1839 (10 June 1839)
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 Winchester from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Winchester stations
Legend South Western Main Line Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway Mid Hants Railway King's Worthy Winchester (Chesil) Winchester City Hockley Viaduct South Western Main Line

Winchester railway station is a railway station located in Winchester in the county of Hampshire in England. It is located on the South Western Main Line and was originally known as Winchester City to distinguish it from Winchester (Chesil) station.

Despite its prominence (most passing passenger trains stop here), the station only has two platforms. One is on the western side, with the line running in the northern direction via Basingstoke, Woking and Clapham Junction, towards the terminal of London Waterloo. The other is on the eastern side, with the line running in the southern direction, towards Eastleigh, where it splits and runs towards Southampton Central, Bournemouth and Weymouth or Portsmouth Harbour.

History

The station was built in 1839 by the London and South Western Railway (then the London and Southampton Railway). It became a temporary terminus for the Winchester to Southampton section. It was opened on the 10 June 1839. On the same day, another station was opened at Basingstoke, which was a temporary terminus of the London to Basingstoke section.

The following year, a line was built joining Winchester and Basingstoke and the line was complete. This line was the trickiest to construct and had four tunnels and a single station called (rather optimistically given Andover lay 13 miles west) Andover Road (now Micheldever). Winchester became a through station on the 30 March 1840.

As the line bypassed Kingston upon Thames, Winchester was the only major settlement between London and Southampton. Since the original Southampton line ran via the then small market town of Basingstoke (where lines to the west would be built), it was not very direct. Another line was constructed to run via Guildford, Farnham and Alton, which joined the main line north of Winchester. The present day line runs via Aldershot instead of Guildford and the line finishes at Alton. A section from Alton to Alresford is preserved as the Watercress Line but the final gap from Alresford to Winchester is unlikely ever to be reinstated due to housing having been built on the trackbed.

Later, the Great Western Railway built the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. This passed at a separate station on the eastern side of Winchester called Winchester (Chesil). In 1949, it was renamed Winchester Chesil, whilst Winchester's main station was renamed Winchester City. This did not last long: In 1966 Chesil closed and the following year, City station was changed back to simply 'Winchester'.

Renovations in summer 2004 gave the western side a refurbished entrance and second ticket office; albeit with shorter opening hours than that on the eastern side.

In summer 2009, both platforms received ticket barriers with CCTV, with the entrance to platform 2 from the forecourt reorganised as part of South West Trains' plan to fit or refit ticket barriers on the busiest stations on the network.

Motive power depot

A small engine shed was built by the Southern Railway in 1927. This housed a shunting locomotive which worked in the local goods yard. It was closed together with the goods yard in 1963.

Facilities

Unique SR locomotive at the station in 1947

• Concourse (x2)
• Ticket Offices (5 windows in total)
• Automatic Ticket Gates
• Quick Ticket
• Pumpkin Cafe
• Small Shop
• Vending Machines
• Telephones (x5)
• Photo Booth
• Toilets
• Bicycle Storage
• Car park (x2)

Services

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Basingstoke		CrossCountry Bournemouth-Manchester		Southampton Airport Parkway
		CrossCountry Southampton-Newcastle
		CrossCountry Bournemouth-Edinburgh
Woking		South West Trains London-Weymouth express services		Southampton Airport Parkway
Basingstoke		South West Trains London-Weymouth semi-fast services		Southampton Airport Parkway
Basingstoke		South West Trains London-Poole stopping services		Shawford
Micheldever		South West Trains London-Portsmouth via Winchester stopping services		Eastleigh

There was a rail-bus link operated on behalf of South West Trains by parent company Stagecoach Group. This was known as the Romsey Rail-Link service and followed the same route as the X66, linking the station with Romsey via Ampfield but with limited stops. Specially trained drivers were equipped with rail ticket machines and were able to issue tickets for the entire rail network as well as weekly season tickets, thereby saving passengers the necessity of queuing at the station ticket office. The service ceased on 28 July 2008 when South West Trains withdrew its subsidy citing lack of use despite a protest group having formed and collecting a petition of over 1,000 signatures to oppose the closure. As part of the X66 timetable, Stagecoach continue to operate two of the early morning peak services which were well-used alongside the existing hourly services but without the facility to purchase rail tickets on the buses.

External links

• History of the Line
• Winchester Local Guide