Southall railway station

Southall is a railway station on the Great Western main line in Southall, London, England. It is in Travelcard Zone 4 and passenger services are provided by Great Western Railway from London Paddington and by TfL Rail to Heathrow Airport. It is 9 miles 6 chains (14.6 km) down the line from Paddington and is situated between Hanwell to the east and Hayes & Harlington to the west.

Southall
Punjabi: ਸਾਊਥਾਲ
Southall Location of Southall in Greater London
Location	Southall
Local authority	London Borough of Ealing
Managed by	TfL Rail[1]
Station code	STL
DfT category	D
Number of platforms	5
Fare zone	4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2014–15	2.422 million[2]
2015–16	2.791 million[2]
2016–17	2.684 million[2]
2017–18	2.657 million[2]
2018–19	3.122 million[2]
Key dates
1 May 1839	Opened
Other information
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51.506°N 0.3783°W / 51.506; -0.3783
London transport portal

The station is managed by TfL Rail in preparation for Crossrail. In Autumn 2021, the TfL Rail service will be re-branded as the Elizabeth line and in December 2021 the Elizabeth line service will open to Reading and Heathrow Airport.

History

Up freight passing Southall Station in 1961

Goods train coming off the Brentford Dock branch in 1961

The Great Western Railway opened Southall railway station on 1 May 1839, nearly one year after it opened its first railway line on 4 June 1838, between London Paddington and Maidenhead Riverside (the latter now known as Taplow).[3] The Brentford Branch Line to Brentford Dock was opened for freight in 1859;[4] a passenger service ran on the branch from 1860 until 1942, using the unnumbered platform at the south of the station (the line serving this platform is now only used as a relief line). From 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885 (when the service was discontinued as uneconomic) the District Railway ran trains between Mansion House and Windsor which called at the station.[5][6] The goods platforms opened as part of the original station; they were closed and dismantled in 1967.[7]

Southall station has bilingual station signage, owing to the large Punjabi community in the local area. Station signs on the platforms bear "Southall" and also "ਸਾਊਥਹਾਲ" in Gurmukhī, a script commonly used for the Punjabi language. In 2007, following issues raised by other ethnic groups in the area, First Great Western announced it would review the signage.[8] The bilingual signs were kept, and they are still displayed at the station.[9] It is one of the relatively few stations in England to have bilingual signage, others being Wallsend (Latin), Hereford (Welsh), and St Pancras International, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International (all French).

Layout and facilities

Southall station
Track Layout
to Southall Down Yard to Reading Relief 1 2 3 4   South Road 1 2 3 4 Q B A 1 2 3 4 1-4 to Paddington A to Southall East Sidings B Brentford Branch Line Q Dismantled track to Sugar Puffs factory

Southall railway station has five platforms, one of which is unnumbered and used only for freight and special events. Access to all platforms is only by stairs. In normal circumstances, platforms 1 and 2, on the fast lines, and the unnumbered platform are not used by passengers; platforms 3 and 4 are used by all trains serving the station. The station building, above the fast lines, has a ticket office and a newsagent's shop. A footbridge gives access to platforms 3 and 4, while gates prevents access to the other three, under normal circumstances.[10]

Oyster "pay as you go" has been available since October 2008 for journeys to or from Southall.[11] Although Southall is a busy station, automatic ticket barriers have not replaced manual ticket checks and standalone card readers, making the station vulnerable to fare evasion.

Services

Trains at Southall are operated by Great Western Railway and TfL Rail.

The Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:

• 6tph to London Paddington
• 2tph to Reading
• 2tph to Heathrow Terminal 4
• 2tph to Hayes & Harlington

The Sunday service is:

• 6 tph to London Paddington
• 2tph to Reading of which 1 continues to Didcot Parkway
• 2tph to Heathrow Terminal 4
• 2tph to Hayes & Harlington

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hayes & Harlington		Great Western Railway Great Western Main Line		Ealing Broadway
Crossrail
Hayes & Harlington		TfL Rail Paddington - Heathrow Terminal 4 Monday-Saturday service		Hanwell
Hayes & Harlington		TfL Rail Paddington - Heathrow Terminal 4 Sunday service		Ealing Broadway
Hayes & Harlington		TfL Rail Paddington - Reading		Ealing Broadway
	Future development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Hayes & Harlington towards Heathrow Airport		Crossrail Elizabeth line		Hanwell towards Abbey Wood
Hayes & Harlington towards Reading		Crossrail Elizabeth line		West Ealing towards Abbey Wood
	Historical services
Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Hayes & Harlington Line and station open towards Windsor		District line		Hanwell Line and station open towards Mansion House
	Disused railways
Terminus		Great Western Railway Brentford Branch Line		Trumpers Crossing Halte Line and station closed

Future

On 16 March 2010, the Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel recommended that Crossrail should give consideration to the proposed regeneration developments in the area, including the Southall Gas Works development and the landscaping of unused work sites.[12]

In May 2011, Network Rail announced that it would make various alterations to prepare the station for Crossrail:[13]

• New station building with a new larger enclosed ticket hall with level access from South Road
• Step-free access
• Platforms 1 – 4 extended
• Improved passenger facilities including increased lighting and information and security systems

Connections

London Buses routes 105, 120, 195, 482, E5 and H32 serve the station.

Accidents and incidents

Main article: Southall rail crash

On 19 September 1997, a Great Western Trains passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington failed to stop at a red signal and collided with a freight train, killing 7 people and injuring 139 others.[14] The train driver, Larry Harrison, was charged with manslaughter, but the case against him was dropped. Great Western Trains was fined £1.5 million for the crash. Following this accident and the more serious Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash some miles east, First Great Western requires all its trains to have their ATP switched on at all times. If the equipment is faulty, the train is stored out of use.

In 2007, analysis by First Great Western after several deaths at Southall station found that a third of the suicides on English and Welsh railways occurred on the line between Slough and Paddington.[15]

• Southall Railway Centre–a heritage railway centre, based in part of the former Southall locomotive depot (visible from the station: to the south of the main line, looking towards Paddington). It is home to the GWR Preservation Group.
• Southall East Junction

References

1. Station facilities for Southall
2. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
3. "Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society". 11. Bishopsgate Institute. 1953: 113. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
4. MacDermot, E T (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. 1 (1833-1863) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
5. Rose, Douglas (December 2007) [1980]. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (8th ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-85414-315-0.
6. Day, John R.; Reed, John (2008) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (10th ed.). Harrow: Capital Transport. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-85414-316-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
7. Brown, Joe (2009). London Railway Atlas (2nd ed.). Ian Allan Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7110-3397-9.
8. "Language row over station signs". British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
9. "Southall Station". The Trainline. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
10. "Southall Station Plan". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
11. "Oyster PAYG on National Rail" (PDF). National Rail Enquiries. 20 October 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009.
12. Unwin, Kevin, "Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel 2009/2010" (PDF), Draft Final Report, London Borough of Ealing, pp. 36–40, retrieved 23 June 2010
13. "Crossrail Station Design Contract Awarded". Crossrail. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
14. Wolmar, Christian (20 September 1997). "Southall, 1.15pm, Friday 19 September 1997. It's happened again". The Independent. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
15. Owen, Glen; Oliver Wadeson (22 September 2007). "'Abused' Asian women behind soaring toll of railway suicides". The Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers. Retrieved 23 June 2010.

• Baker, T.F.T., Cockburn, J.S. and Pugh, R.B. (Eds) (1971) "Norwood, including Southall: Introduction", A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner, Victoria County History online, p. 40-43, accessed 20 October 2007
• Mitchell V. and Smith, K. (2000) "2. Brentford Branch, Southall", In: Branch Lines of West London, Midhurst : Middleton Press, ISBN 1-901706-50-8, p. 16-23

External links

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