Woking railway station

Woking
Woking railway station, southern exterior
Location
Place	Woking
Local authority	Woking
Coordinates	51.318°N 0.557°W / 51.318; -0.557
Grid reference	TQ006587
Operations
Station code	WOK
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	6 (5 in use)
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	6.202 million
2005/06 *	6.350 million
2006/07 *	6.731 million
2007/08 *	7.510 million
2008/09 *	7.484 million
2009/10 *	7.144 million
History
Original company	London and Southampton Railway
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
21 May 1838 (1838-05-21)	Station opened as Woking Common
c. 1843	Renamed Woking
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 Woking from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Woking railway station is a major stop on the South Western Main Line used by many commuters. Woking station is served by a number of rail services including:

• the Alton Line calling at stations to Alton
• the Portsmouth Direct Line to Guildford and stations to Portsmouth
• the South Western Main Line to Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth and the south coast
• the West of England Main Line to Salisbury, Dorset, Exeter and stations in South West England
• Woking station also is the southern terminus for the Waterloo to Woking stopping service

Fast trains from Woking take approximately twenty-six minutes to reach Waterloo (some stop at Clapham Junction). Trains from the Alton Line take roughly thirty-five minutes, and the stopping service fifty minutes, to Waterloo.

A twice-hourly RailAir bus service runs between the terminus located beside the station and Heathrow Airport, a journey of about fifty minutes.

History

The London and Southampton Railway (L&SR) was authorised on 25 July 1834. It was built and opened in stages, and the first section, that between the London terminus at Nine Elms and Woking Common was opened on 21 May 1838. Woking Common became a through station with the opening of the next section of the line, as far as Winchfield, on 24 September that year. On 4 June 1839, the L&SR was renamed the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), and Woking Common station assumed its current name of Woking c. 1843.

Woking became a junction with the opening of the Guildford Junction Railway (GJR) on 5 May 1845; it had been authorised less than a year earlier, on 10 May 1844. The GJR was always operated by the LSWR, and was absorbed by that company on 4 August 1845.

Platforms

Woking Station has six platforms.

• Platform 1 - Fast and semi-fast London Trains. Situated on the north side of the station.
• Platform 2 - Fast London services.
• Platform 3 - Stopping service to/from London. Situated at the easternmost end of platforms 2/4.
• Platform 4 - Fast trains to Basingstoke, Southampton, Weymouth, Salisbury and Exeter.
• Platform 5 - Portsmouth line, Alton line, Basingstoke stopping.
• Platform 6 - a south facing bay platform, the first train of the day to Portsmouth Harbour via Eastleigh start from this platform, and it is often used to stable diesel locomotives in the event of a train failure.

Services

• 14tph to London Waterloo, of which:
  • 5tph run non-stop
  • 3tph call at Clapham Junction
  • 2tph call at Weybridge and Walton on Thames and Surbiton, of which:
    • 1tph call at Clapham Junction (xx.29), and 1tph does not (xx.59)
  • 2tph call at West Byfleet and Surbiton, of which:
    • 1tph calls at Clapham Junction (xx.22), and 1tph does not (xx.52)
  • 2tph call at all stations apart from Berrylands, New Malden, Raynes Park and Queenstown Road (xx.03) and (xx.33)
• 4tph on the Portsmouth Direct Line, of which
  • 2tph fast to Portsmouth Harbour
  • 1tph stopping to Portsmouth and Southsea
  • 1tph stopping to Haslemere
• 6tph on the South Western Main Line, of which
  • 2tph stopping to Basingstoke
  • 2tph to Alton
  • 1tph to Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke
  • 1tph to Weymouth
    • Two slower trains to Weymouth and Poole pass through Woking without stopping - the only passenger services which do so
• 2tph on the West of England Main Line
  • 1tph to Exeter St Davids
  • 1tph to Salisbury

In popular culture

Woking Station was destroyed in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.

References

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. CN 8983. 
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1 85260 508 1. R508. 
• Wells, H.G. (1975) [1898]. The War of the Worlds. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0 330 24332 2. 
• Williams, R.A. (1968). The London & South Western Railway, volume 1: The Formative Years. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 4188 X. 
• Woking Borough Council, 'Woking's railway'

External links

• Train times and station information for Woking railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Clapham Junction or London Waterloo		South West Trains Portsmouth Direct Line		Guildford
		South West Trains Portsmouth Direct Line (Stopping service)		Worplesdon
		South West Trains South Western Main Line		Brookwood or Farnborough (Main)
		South West Trains West of England Main Line		Basingstoke
West Byfleet		South West Trains Alton Line		Brookwood
		South West Trains Waterloo to Woking (Stopping service)		Terminus
Weybridge		South West Trains Waterloo to Basingstoke (Stopping service)		Brookwood
	Historical railways
Staines		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Farnborough (Main)