Southall railway station

Southall ਸਾਊਥਹਾਲ
Location	Southall
Local authority	London Borough of Ealing
Managed by	First Great Western
Station code(s)	STL
Number of platforms	2
National Rail annual entry and exit
2004–05	0.865 million
Other information
External links	Departures Facilities
London transport portal

Bilingual sign at Southall Station

Southall railway station is a station in Southall, London, located in Zone 4.

The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from London Paddington to Reading, Oxford and Newbury, and by Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow Airport. The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, now known as the Great Western Main Line.

The station is one of the few in England in which the signs stating the station's name are in two languages, in this case English and Punjabi (Wallsend, on the Tyne and Wear Metro, has bilingual signage in English and Latin). Recently some informative station displays have also started to feature notices in Punjabi.

History

Southall station was opened in 1839. It was on the main Great Western Railway line to Slough and the west. In 1859, a branch line to Brentford Docks was opened for carrying goods. Passenger services started running on this branch line in 1860, and continued until 1942, when the service was withdrawn.

The line alongside the un-numbered platform at the southern edge of Southall station is where these services used to run, now only used as a relief. The tracks veer off in a south-easterly direction under the Grand Junction Canal at Windmill Bridge (Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous "three bridges") and then through the wilderness of Osterley. It is still used for London waste and an aggregates depot, the line being cut by the Great West Road and other modern developments. There are still remains in Brentford of the former line.

The Southall rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 19 September 1997, on the Great Western Main Line at Southall, west London. Six people were killed and over 150 were injured.

The station is infamous with many people having committed suicide at the train station.

Interesting Facts

Looking from the bridge on where the station is situated, towards Paddington, you will see a row of brickwork industrial units with two bricked up archways. Those units used to be a kind of engine shed many years ago. Its probabily pre or post British Rail Era that the shed has been discontinued. Over the years they have been modified into sizeable industrial units you see today.

Another monument to Southall's former rail workings can be seen on The Green ( a road) as you travel to the station from the south. Between a church and a hall, called the Tudor Rose, is a structure, which quite evidently looks like a small signal box now marooned within an industrial/ retail area.

References

• British History Online: Norwood, including Southall: Introduction, (The Victoria History of the Counties of England: A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 4, published 1971).

External links

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

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Ealing Broadway		First Great Western		Hayes & Harlington
Hanwell Ealing Broadway on Sundays		Heathrow Connect		Hayes & Harlington

Future Development

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hayes and Harlington		Crossrail		Hanwell