Alton railway station
Alton  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.JPG) | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Alton, East Hampshire England | ||||
| Grid reference | SU723397 | ||||
| Managed by | South Western Railway | ||||
| Platforms | 3 (2 National Rail, 1 Watercress Line) | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | AON[1] | ||||
| Classification | DfT category C2 | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 28 July 1852 | Station opens | ||||
| 2 October 1865 | Station moves to adjacent site | ||||
| February 1973 | National Rail services west of Alton curtailed | ||||
| 25 May 1985 | Watercress Line begins heritage services west of Alton | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2020/21 |  0.133 million | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.387 million | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.496 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.544 million | ||||
| 2024/25 | 0.591 million | ||||
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Alton railway station serves the market town of Alton, in the English county of Hampshire. The station is the terminus for two railway lines: the Alton line, which runs to Brookwood and on to London Waterloo, and the Watercress Line, a heritage railway which runs to Alresford. It is located 49 miles 13 chains (79.1 km) from London Waterloo.[2]
History
[edit]
Basingstoke & Alton Light Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The first station, opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on 28 July 1852,[3] was sited on what is now the station car park. It closed when the present station opened on 2 October 1865.[3] The station was briefly named Alton for Selborne between 5 July 1926 and 1955, when it reverted to its current name.[3]
The line, originally built as single track, was doubled in 1901.[4] The line from Woking to Alton was electrified in 1937[5] and the station passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The line was single-tracked as far as Farnham by British Rail in the early 1980s.
The Alton, Alresford and Winchester Railway - later renamed the Mid-Hants Railway - opened a through line to Winchester in October 1865,[5] but this was closed to passengers in February 1973.[6] It reopened as a heritage line in stages - first from Alton to Ropley in 1977,[7] and through to Alresford by May 1985.[8]
The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened on 1 June 1901. Due to low passenger traffic and the distance from the intermediate stations to their namesake villages,[9] the line closed at short notice on 1 January 1917.[10] The line was reopened due to local pressure on 18 August 1924,[10] but the line closed again permanently in 1967.[citation needed]
The Meon Valley Railway between Alton and Fareham opened two years after the B&ALR, on 1 June 1903.[11] Again, it was deemed financially unsustainable, and in February 1955 closed to passenger traffic, with the line closing permanently in 1962.[12]
Location
[edit]The station is nowhere near Alton Towers Resort, which is located in the rural village of Alton in Staffordshire, about 185 miles away. Local residents, who have encountered many people trying to find Alton Towers, have put up posters at the station containing directions from the station to the resort by train, with a journey time of approximately 4 hours and 46 minutes.[13][14]
Facilities
[edit]There is a ticket office which is open seven days a week, with a ticket machine beside the booking hall. There are automated announcements and digital information displays to offer train running details. A car park with 207 spaces is available for passengers.[15]
Passenger volume
[edit]| 2002–03 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entries and exits | 400,944 | 480,790 | 498,254 | 548,291 | 625,926 | 650,674 | 706,582 | 720,478 | 717,170 | 720,584 | 697,306 | 744,138 | 753,202 | 716,162 | 710,322 | 711,292 | 679,324 | 133,396 | 386,882 | 496,032 |
The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services
[edit]The standard off-peak service provides two trains per hour to London Waterloo. On Sundays, there is an hourly service, increasing to half-hourly from approximately 13:30. Services are operated by South Western Railway.[17]
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | South Western Railway Alton Line |
Bentley or Farnham | ||
| Preceding station |  Heritage railways
|
Following station | ||
| Medstead and Four Marks towards Alresford
|
Watercress Line | Terminus | ||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | London and South Western Railway Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway |
Treloar's Hospital Platform Line and station closed | ||
| Farringdon Halt | British Rail Southern Region Meon Valley Railway |
Terminus | ||
References
[edit]- ^ "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
- ^ Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 18. ISBN 978 1909431 26 3.
- ^ a b c Quick 2023, p. 50.
- ^ Faulkner & Williams 1988, p. 70.
- ^ a b "Mid-Hants Railway - Friends of Alton Station Alton, Hampshire - Friends of Alton Station, Alton". www.friendsofaltonstation.org.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ^ Body, p.33
- ^ "Our History - Watercress Line". 28 April 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ^ Alan C Butcher (1996). Mid-Hants railway in colour. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-2465-0.
- ^ Hampshire Herald & Alton Gazette, 8 June 1901, quoted in Maggs, page 91
- ^ a b Grant, Donald J. (2017). Directory of the railway companies of Great Britain. Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire. ISBN 978-1-78589-353-7. OCLC 946006746.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), pages 33 and 34 - ^ H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume II: Southern England, Phoenix House, London, 1961, page 124
- ^ David Fereday Glenn, Rail Routes in Hampshire and East Dorset, Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1213-X, pages 23 and 24
- ^ "Burton Mail: Alton Towers visitors ending up almost 200 miles away in Hampshire". Archived from the original on 21 October 2015.
- ^ Fricker, Martin (16 October 2015). "'Alton Towers is four hours 46 minutes away' says new sign at namesake town". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ^ "Alton Station | National Rail". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ^ "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
- ^ "Timetables". South Western Railway. 2 June 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
Bibliography
[edit]- Body, G. (1984), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Southern Region, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge. ISBN 0-85059-664-5
- Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
- Faulkner, J.N.; Williams, R.A. (1988). The LSWR in the 20th Century. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-71-538927-0.
- Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
- Quick, Michael (2023). Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain: A Chronology (PDF) (5th ed.). London: Railway and Canal Historical Society.
External links
[edit]
- Map sources for Alton railway station
- Train times and station information for Alton railway station from National Rail
- Station on navigable O.S. map