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Basingstoke railway station

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Basingstoke railway station serves the town of Basingstoke in the county of Hampshire in England. It is on the South West Main Line from London Waterloo, with local and fast services operated by South Western Railway. It is the terminus of Great Western Railway local services on the Reading to Basingstoke Line. Long-distance cross-country services operated by CrossCountry to Bournemouth from Birmingham (the Bournemouth to Birmingham route), Manchester and further north, join the main line from the branch there.

Basingstoke
National Rail
Basingstoke station main entrance
General information
LocationBasingstoke, Borough of Basingstoke and Deane
England
Coordinates51°16′06″N 1°05′16″W / 51.2683°N 1.0878°W / 51.2683; -1.0878
Grid referenceSU637525
Managed bySouth Western Railway
Platforms5
Other information
Station codeBSK
ClassificationDfT category B
History
Original companyLondon and South Western Railway
Pre-groupingLondon and South Western Railway
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
Key dates
10 June 1839 (1839-06-10)Station opened
Passengers
2018/19Increase 5.979 million
 Interchange Increase 1.875 million
2019/20Decrease 5.702 million
 Interchange Increase 3.146 million
2020/21Decrease 1.279 million
 Interchange Decrease 0.414 million
2021/22Increase 3.662 million
 Interchange Increase 1.369 million
2022/23Increase 4.004 million
 Interchange Decrease 1.077 million
Location
Map
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road
The station in 1963
Railways around Basingstoke
Legend
South West Main Line
Reading–Basingstoke line
Daneshill Sidings
Basingstoke Junction
 Basingstoke
(GWR)
 Basingstoke
Goods Yard
Thornycroft Works
Basingstoke & Alton Light Rly
Thornycroft Works
Park Prewett
Worting Junction
Battledown Flyover
West of England line
South West Main Line

It is 47 miles 61 chains (76.9 km) down the line from London Waterloo, and 51 miles 39 chains (82.9 km) from London Paddington.[1]

History

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The station was opened by the London and South Western Railway as a temporary terminus when its line to Southampton reached Basingstoke from London. It became a through station when the section running north from Southampton was completed later in 1840. The intention to build a line from near Basingstoke to Bristol was dropped when the Great Western Railway was approved.[2] The L&SWR did, however plan a line to Salisbury from Basingstoke but this was delayed by financial difficulties. Eventually, it was built reaching Andover in 1854 and Salisbury three years later, before being extended to become the West of England Main Line.[citation needed]

The Great Western Railway opened its broad gauge line from Reading on 1 November 1848 with a separate station north of the L&SWR station.[3] After its conversion to mixed gauge on 22 December 1856 through services could run between Southampton and Reading. The broad gauge rail was removed on 1 April 1869.[4] The GWR station was closed on 1 January 1932[5] and demolished the same year. Since then trains from Reading have used the main station.[6]

Basingstoke station was the terminus of the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway, opened in 1901 to prevent the GWR from building a line on this route towards Portsmouth. The line was never profitable. During the First World War some of the track was sold off. After the war the Southern Railway reopened the line, but it was closed finally in 1932.[citation needed]

In the 1980s Platform 5 was converted to a bay platform to permit an entrance on the northern side by British Rail. In 1993, an explosive device planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army was found in a toilet, soon after a bomb scare at Reading railway station.[7] In 2001 a suitcase was left outside the station containing the mutilated body of a man in his twenties. He had been stabbed to death.[8]

Anglia Railways ran the London Crosslink service from Ipswich to Basingstoke via Stratford and the North London Line using Class 170s between May 2000 and September 2002. South West Trains also ran a local service from Reading to Brighton until timetable changes on 9 December 2007.[9] Southern railway services from Southampton and Portsmouth to Brighton were improved to compensate for that.[10]

In 2012, improvements were made to the station, including a new stainless steel and glass frontage, an enlarged booking hall and a new waiting room on platforms 2 and 3.[11] In 2022, South Western Railway introduced staff members called "Welcome Hosts" at this station and some others to provide information and sell tickets.[12][13]

Platforms

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The station has five platforms, four of which can be used bi-directionally. They are above street level and are accessed via stairs and lifts from the booking hall and subway.[14] There is a secondary entrance on Platform 4.

Facilities

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The station has two entrances. The main entrance to the south has access to a taxi rank, some car parks and a bus stop, with steps down to The Malls shopping centre. A bridge over Churchill Way leads to the bus station. Festival Place can be accessed from The Malls or the bus station, while Festival Square and the Top of Town are located beyond the bus station. The northern entrance on Platform 4 gives access to a car park. The south booking hall has ticket facilities (including ticket machines), information and a small shop. The station is staffed all day, and both entrances have ticket barriers.
There is a small café on the central island platform and another on Platform 4, as well as indoor waiting rooms.

Signalling

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The station area and its various routes have been controlled by colour light signalling since the mid-1960s. The 1966 panel box (which controlled the main line from west of Woking through to Micheldever and Andover along with part of the line to Reading) was located on the north side of the line to the east of the station, but this was superseded by a new facility in 2007 when the area was resignalled. It was announced in 2013 that a new Network Rail signalling operating centre would be built in Basingstoke; the contract was for £30 million. Twelve such regional control centres were to be built in the following 15 to 30 years, which will be responsible for all the signalling in the Wessex & South West England area (right through from London Waterloo to Weymouth, Portsmouth Harbour and Exeter).[16] Several routes have had their signal control moved to Basingstoke, including the West of England main line Salisbury to Exmouth Jn in 2012 [17] and the Poole - Wareham - Wool section of the line to Weymouth in 2015.

Incidents

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On 19 December 2008 an over-height container on a freight train struck and damaged 140 yards (130 m) of the canopy of platform 1.[18] The train was stopped before it reached the tunnels north of Micheldever.

Motive Power Depots

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Ex-GW 6851 'Hurst Grange' 4-6-0 outside Basingstoke Locomotive Depot 24 July 1965.

The London and South Western Railway opened a locomotive shed on the south side of the main line, to the west of the station in 1839. This was closed in 1909 to make way for station enlargement. It was replaced by a larger structure on the north side of the line. This was closed by British Railways in March 1963, but remained in use as a servicing point until the end of steam in July 1967. It was demolished in 1969.[19]

The Berks and Hants Railway opened a small shed to the east of the station on the north side of the line in 1850. This was closed by British Railways in November 1950, and demolished to make way for sidings.[19]

Services

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The eastern end of bay platform 5, looking towards the junction

Services at Basingstoke are operated by South Western Railway, Great Western Railway and CrossCountry. The off-peak service at the station in trains per hour is:

South Western Railway

Great Western Railway

CrossCountry

Preceding station   National Rail Following station
Hook   South Western Railway
Waterloo to Basingstoke 		  Terminus
Fleet or
Farnborough (Main) or
Woking or
Clapham Junction 		  South Western Railway
South West Main Line
Fast/Semi-Fast Services 		  Winchester
  South Western Railway
South West Main Line
Stopping services 		  Micheldever
Woking   South Western Railway
West of England Main Line 		  Overton
Reading   CrossCountry
Bournemouth-Manchester 		  Winchester or Southampton Airport Parkway
Bramley   Great Western Railway
Reading to Basingstoke Line 		  Terminus
  Historical railways  
Farnborough (Main)   Anglia Railways
London Crosslink 		  Terminus
Disused railways
Terminus   Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway   Cliddesden
Terminus   Park Prewett Hospital Railway   Park Prewett Hospital

References

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  1. ^ Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 27B. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.
  2. ^ Christopher J. Tolley (2004). "BRH: On the Main Line". Archived from the original on 19 April 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  3. ^ MacDermot, E T (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. 1 (1833-1863) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
  4. ^ MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. 2 (1863-1921) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
  5. ^ Passengers No More by Gerald Daniels and Les Dench
  6. ^ "Great Western Railway publicity". The Great Western Archive. 2006. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  7. ^ "History A Time Line of Policing the Railways". BTP History Society. 2003. Archived from the original on 8 November 2003. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  8. ^ "'Body in suitcase' monk guilty". BBC News – www.bbc.co.uk. 8 April 2003. Archived from the original on 29 June 2006. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
  9. ^ "New timetable: Service changes from 9 Dec 2007". South West Trains. 2007. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  10. ^ "West CoastWay – How it affects you". Southern Railway. 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2008.[permanent dead link‍]
  11. ^ "Station re-opened after £2m revamp". Basingstoke Gazette.
  12. ^ "Basingstoke Station gets Welcome Hosts from SWR". Basingstoke Gazette. 4 February 2022. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  13. ^ "SWR Expands Welcome Host Services at Key Stations". South Western Railway. 4 February 2022.
  14. ^ Station Plan - BasingstokeNational Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 15 August 2016
  15. ^ "Basingstoke station platforms 1 & 2" Horn, Graham, Geograph.org; Retrieved 15 August 2016
  16. ^ BAM to build Network Rail signalling centre Global Rail News article 2 October 2013; Retrieved 13 February 2014
  17. ^ "Salisbury to Exeter Re-signalling Scheme". www.yeovilrailway.freeservers.com.
  18. ^ "Rail Accident Investigation Board – Incident involving a container train at Basingstoke station, 19 December 2008" (PDF). August 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  19. ^ a b Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (1999). The directory of British engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 1. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Co. p. 48. ISBN 0-86093-542-6.
  20. ^ "T14 - Reading to Basingstoke" (PDF). Great Western Railway. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
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