Richmond station

Richmond station (London) is a National Rail and London Underground station in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London which is managed by South West Trains.

It is on the National Rail Waterloo to Reading Line on which South West Trains services run, and is the western terminus for services of London Overground on the National Rail North London Line and of London Underground District line trains. The next station to the northeast on the terminating lines is. On the through line Richmond is between North Sheen and St. Margarets stations.

History
The Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) opened the first station at Richmond on 27 July 1846 as the terminus of its line from Clapham Junction on a site, which later became a goods yard, to the south of the present through platforms and where a multi-storey car park now stands. The Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) extended the line westward resiting the station to the west side of The Quadrant, on the extended tracks slightly west of the present through platforms. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were subsidiary companies of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR).

On 1 January 1869 the L&SWR opened a line to Richmond from north of Addison Road station (now Kensington (Olympia) station) on the West London Joint Railway. This line ran through Hammersmith (Grove Road) station, since closed, and and had connection with the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) near ]. Most of this line is now part of the London Underground District line; the line south from Gunnersbury was also served by the North London Railway (NLR) and is now used also by London Overground. Before this line was built services north from Richmond ran somewhat circuitously via chords at Kew Bridge and Barnes.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly (1 June to 31 October 1870) ran a service from to Richmond via the Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City Line) tracks to Grove Road then over the L&SWR tracks through Turnham Green.

On 1 June 1877 the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR), later known as the District Railway, linked its then terminus at Hammersmith to the nearby L&SWR tracks east of the present Ravenscourt Park station. The MDR began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station.

The MDR route from Richmond to central London via Hammersmith was more direct than those of the NLR via, of the L&SWR and the MR via Grove Road station and of the L&SWR via Clapham Junction to Waterloo. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR Richmond service, resulting in Gunnersbury having the services of five operators.

After electrifying its tracks north of in 1903, the MDR funded the electrification, completed on 1 August 1905, from Gunnersbury to Richmond. . The MDR ran electric trains on the branch while the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled.

MR services ceased on 31 December 1906 and those of the GWR on 31 December 1910 leaving operations northwards through Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the MDR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. On 3 June 1916 the L&SWR withdrew its service from Richmond to Addison Road through Hammersmith due to competition from the District line, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route and the NLR providing mainline services via Willesden Junction.

Under the grouping of 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway (SR) and the NLR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); both were subsequently nationalised into British Railways. On 1 August 1937 the SR opened its rebuilt station with the station building and the through platforms moved east to be next to the terminal platforms.

Crossrail
A Crossrail branch to Kingston upon Thames via Richmond was proposed in 2003, but was dropped in 2004 due to a combination of local opposition, uncertainty over the route, cost, and insufficient return on investment. It could have run either overland or via a tunnel to Turnham Green and on the existing track through Gunnersbury to Richmond, which would have lost the District line service, and thence to Kingston.

Platforms
The station has seven platforms:
 * Platforms 1 and 2 are through platforms for South West Trains services.
 * Platforms 3 to 7 are terminating platforms used by:
 * London Overground services (mostly platforms 3, 4, and occasionally 5,6 or 7)
 * and the District line (usually platforms 5, 6, and 7.. Sometimes 4 but never 3 due to the lack of fourth rail here).

The wide gap between platforms 3 and 4 originally had a third, run-around, track for steam locomotives.

Off peak service
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:


 * 8 direct to (South West Trains)
 * 2 fast to Clapham Junction
 * 2 fast to Putney and Clapham Junction
 * 4 all stations
 * 8 direct from Waterloo (South West Trains)
 * 2 to Reading
 * 2 to Windsor & Eton Riverside
 * 2 indirectly returning to Waterloo via Hounslow & Brentford
 * 2 indirectly returning to Waterloo via Kingston
 * 4 to (London Overground)
 * 6 to via  (District line)

The Heathrow Airtrack proposal of the October 2008 consultation, would have two more fast trains per hour to Waterloo and two trains per hour to station from 2014. Although vociferous objection arises about possible level-crossing congestion on the Chertsey line, the effect of 20 trains per hour through the four crossings between Richmond and Barnes, where even now five trains may pass at one closure, is muted

Transport links
London bus routes 33 (24 hours), 65 (24 hours), 190, 337, 371, 493, H22, H37, R68, R70 and night route N22.

There is a taxi rank at the station entrance.