Alton railway station

Alton railway station is a station in the 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 Mid Hants Watercress Railway which runs to Alresford. The latter once ran through to Winchester but was closed to passengers in February 1973;[1] it reopened as a heritage line in 1985. Two other routes, both now closed, also served the station – the Meon Valley line to Fareham and the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway.

This article is about the railway station in Hampshire. For other uses, see Alton station (disambiguation).

Alton
LocationAlton, East Hampshire
England
Grid referenceSU723397
Managed bySouth Western Railway
Platforms3 (2 National Rail
1 Watercress Line)
Other information
Station codeAON
ClassificationDfT category C2
Key dates
28 July 1852Station opens
2 October 1865Station moved to adjacent site
Passengers
2015/16 0.753 million
2016/17 0.716 million
2017/18 0.710 million
2018/19 0.711 million
2019/20 0.679 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
Local train to Winchester in 1955
Last Meon Valley train in 1955

Services operate along the Alton Line to Brookwood and join the South West Main Line towards London Waterloo. The line was single-tracked as far as Farnham by British Rail in the early 1980s.

Platforms

There are three platforms in use. South Western Railway use platforms one and two, connected by a footbridge. Platform three is used by the Mid Hants Watercress Railway.

History

The first station opened by the London and South Western Railway in 1852 was sited on what is now the station car park. It closed when the present station opened in 1865. The London & South Western Railway became part of the Southern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line from Woking to Alton was electrified in 1937 and the station passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced in 1986, the station was served by Network SouthEast, until the privatisation of British Rail in 1997.

Location

Alton station is located in the local government district of East Hampshire.

The station is nowhere near Alton Towers Resort, which is located in the rural village of Alton in Staffordshire, about 185 miles away. Many people trying to reach the resort have mistakenly travelled to this station. 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.[2]

Services

Monday to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service to London Waterloo and an hourly service on Sundays, increasing to half-hourly from approximately 1330.

Services are usually operated by Class 450 Desiro units, although the Class 444 & Class 458 is also sometimes used.

Notes
  1. Body, p.33
  2. "Burton Mail: Alton Towers visitors ending up almost 200 miles away in Hampshire". Archived from the original on 21 October 2015.

References
  • Body, G. (1984), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Southern Region, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge. ISBN 0-85059-664-5
  • Butt, R. V. J. (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.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Bentley   South Western Railway
Alton Line		   Terminus
  Heritage railways
Terminus   Mid Hants Watercress Railway   Medstead & Four Marks
Disused railways
Treloar's Hospital Platform
Line and station closed		   London and South Western Railway
Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway		   Terminus
Terminus   British Rail
Southern Region
Meon Valley Railway		   Farringdon Platform

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