Christchurch railway station (England)

For the former railway station, see Christchurch railway station (1862–1886).

Christchurch railway station serves the town of Christchurch in Dorset, England. The station is on the London Waterloo to Weymouth line operated by South Western Railway. It is 104 miles 28 chains (167.9 km) down the line from Waterloo.

Christchurch
Station building, seen in 2013
General information
Location	Christchurch, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole England
Grid reference	SZ152932
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CHR
Classification	DfT category D
History
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
30 May 1886	Opened
Passengers
2018/19	0.523 million
2019/20	0.488 million
2020/21	0.118 million
2021/22	0.338 million
2022/23	0.401 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Between 1862 and 1886, Christchurch station was sited elsewhere to the east of Fairmile Road in Christchurch - see Christchurch (RC&BR) railway station. Until 1935 the current station also serviced the line from Ringwood - see Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway. The line was electrified in 1967 when faster more frequent services were introduced.

Services

A train from London

Although passed by the faster trains to Bournemouth it has an hourly semi-fast (to Weymouth, does not run on Sundays) and stopping (to Poole) service from Waterloo, usually formed by a class 444 Desiro electric multiple unit. This gives a journey time of about two hours from London. As well as Christchurch, the station is useful for reaching eastern parts of Bournemouth. The majority of services were previously operated by class 442 Wessex Electrics which were withdrawn in February 2007.

The station is able to accommodate trains of up to eight coaches, longer trains only open the doors in the first five or eight coaches depending on the type of unit operating the service.

Road access to the station is from the northern end of Stour Road, near to the junction with Bargates coming from the town centre, at the end of Fairmile coming from the direction of Bournemouth International Airport and the Wessex Way. (A fairly steep bridge over the railway marks the point where Fairmile and Bargates, one straight road, meet.)

All passenger trains serving this station are operated by South Western Railway.

As of February 2022, the following services call here in both directions:

• Monday - Friday
  • 1 train per hour on Weymouth - London Waterloo semi-fast service
  • 1 train per hour on Bournemouth - Winchester stopping service
    • these services are join / split at Southampton Central from the fast Weymouth service giving 2 trains per hour for London in peak hours
• Saturday
  • 1 train per hour on Weymouth - London Waterloo semi-fast service
  • 1 train per hour on Poole - Winchester stopping service
• Sunday
  • 1 train per hour on Poole - London Waterloo stopping service

References

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hinton Admiral		South Western Railway South West Main Line		Pokesdown
	Disused railways
Hurn Line and station closed		Southern Railway Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway		Terminus