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.

Alton
Location
Place	Alton
Local authority	East Hampshire
Grid reference	SU723397
Operations
Station code	AON
Managed by	South Western Railway
Number of platforms	3 (2 National Rail 1 Watercress Line)
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.744 million
2015/16	0.753 million
2016/17	0.716 million
2017/18	0.710 million
2018/19	0.711 million
History
28 July 1852	Station opens
2 October 1865	Station moved to adjacent site
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Alton from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Basingstoke & Alton Light Railway
South Western main line to Waterloo Basingstoke South Western main line to Weymouth Thornycroft sidings Cliddesden Herriard Bentworth and Lasham Treloar's Hospital Platform (private platform) Treloar's Hospital siding Alton line to Brookwood Alton Butts Junction Watercress Line to Alresford Meon Valley Railway to Fareham

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.

External links

• Map sources for Alton railway station

• Train times and station information for Alton railway station from National Rail
• Station on navigable O.S. map

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