Southall railway station

Southall railway station, is in Southall in west London, England. The station is in Travelcard Zone 4 and passenger services are provided by First Great Western from London to Reading, Oxford and Newbury, and by Heathrow Connect from Paddington to Heathrow Airport. Southall is one of two stations in England which have bilingual station signage (the other is Wallsend, on the Tyne and Wear Metro). Station signs on the platforms bear "Southall" and also "ਸਾਊਥਹਾਲ" in Gurmukhī, a script commonly used for Punjabi. Some station information notices have been provided in Punjabi.
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History
Southall station was opened on 1 May 1839 by the Great Western Railway. In 1859 the Brentford Branch Line to Brentford Docks was opened for freight, a passenger service ran on the branch from 1860 until 1942, using the unnumbered platform at the south of the station whose line is now only used as a relief line. From 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885 (when the service was discontinued as uneconomic) the Metropolitan District Railway ran trains at the station; these ran between and Windsor.

The goods platforms opened as part of the original station and were closed and dismantled in 1967.

Future
In proposals for the construction of Crossrail Southall station would be rebuilt north of the present station, with step-free access, increased capacity, platforms 3 and 4 widened and extended, and a footbridge connecting the platforms. On 16 March 2010, as part of the new station design process, the Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel recommended that consideration should be given to potential future regeneration developments in the area, including the Southall Gasworks development and the landscaping of unused work sites.

Layout and facilities
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. A footbridge over the slow lines gives access to platforms 3 and 4, while a gate prevents access to the other three. The station building, above the fast lines, has a ticket office and a newsagent's shop.

Oyster "pay as you go" has been available since October 2008 for journeys to or from Southall. Although Southall is a busy station automatic ticket barriers have not replaced manual ticket checks.

Bus links
London Buses routes 105, 120, 195, 482, E5 and H32 serve Southall Station.

Incidents and accidents
On 19 September 1997, a Great Western Trains passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington collided with a freight train, killing six people and injuring 150 others.

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

Gallery
Station Southall