Hampton Court railway station

Hampton Court railway station is a railway station in the Elmbridge district of Surrey, located in East Molesey by Hampton Court Bridge.

The station also serves Hampton Court Palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and for the purposes of fare charging it is included in Travelcard Zone 6; the station is across the River Thames from Hampton Court Park. The line is also used for the yearly Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in July and other event such as the Hampton Court Music Festival and a "Country affair"(2006)

It is the terminus of a short branch line, the Hampton Court Branch Line, with a junction on the South Western Main Line west of Surbiton. The only other station on the branch is Thames Ditton. The branch was opened on 1 February 1849 and today it is operated by South West Trains using the 455 Class fleet.

Services
Services from the station to destinations served are very frequent throughout the whole day (usually half hourly), with weekend services running at a similar frequency. Almost all of the services either start or terminate at London Waterloo.

The typical off-peak service from the station is:


 * 2 trains per hour to London Waterloo via Wimbledon
 * 2 trains per hour from London Waterloo via Wimbledon terminating at the station

Trains take 35 minutes for the 13.3 miles (21 km) journey.

In common with the 16 hourly off-peak closer commuter services to/from London Waterloo calling at Earlsfield railway station (more in peak) and all intermittent London stations all managed by South West Trains, trains must stop at every intermittent station. There are no fast services available to mid distance destinations, which gives overcapacity towards Hampton Court due to the longer journey time and overcrowding during the inner city phase of journeys. This situation can be contrasted to certain other routes to destinations just outside of Greater London in certain other directions.

Infrastructure
Trains use both faces of the former Down platform. The station buildings, in "Jacobean" style, have ornately-decorated windows and doors. The branch has speed restrictions of 40 mph on the Up line and 45 mph on the Down.

There are plans to refurbish the station and the neighbouring "Jolly Boatman" site, these involve removing some late Victorian platform canopies, cutting the number of platforms available, and making a larger, more modern building with shops and restaurants, dates for the refurbishment are unknown although planning consent was granted in December 2008, subject to a Section 106 Agreement being reached with the applicants. Neither English Heritage nor the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment objected to the amended designs.

New ticket machines were installed at all South West Trains' stations including Hampton Court, with these you can use Cash and Debit/Credit Cards to purchase tickets to any National Rail destination. Tickets should be purchased using these rather than the basic "permit-to-travel" machines now likely to disappear.

Platform signage installed during 2009 seems to be in a scheme identical to Southeastern colours, with white lettering on a navy blue field. Similar platform signs have also made an appearance at New Malden railway station. This style signage is now appearing across the South West Trains network.

Future
As part of the proposed Crossrail 2 infrastructure, Hampton Court has been proposed by business group London First as the terminus for a potential service to Cheshunt via Central London, opening in the "early 2030s".