Basingstoke railway station



Basingstoke railway station, in the town of Basingstoke in the county of Hampshire in England, is on the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo, with local and fast services operated by South West Trains. It is also the terminus of First Great Western local services on the Reading to Basingstoke Line. Long distance cross-country services operated by CrossCountry to Bournemouth from Birmingham, Manchester and further north, join the main line from the branch there. The station is sponsored by AXA Winterthur Insurance who are based in the town.

History
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 1839. The intention to build a line from near Basingstoke to Bristol was dropped when the Great Western Railway was approved. 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.

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. 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 The GWR station was demolished in 1932, since which trains from Reading have used the main station.

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 and during the First World War, some of the track was sold off. After the war, Southern Railway had the line reopened, only for it to be closed finally in 1932.

In the 1980s, Platform 5 was converted to a bay platform to permit an entrance on the northern side. 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. 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.

Anglia Railways ran a London Crosslink service from Ipswich to Basingstoke via Stratford and the North London Line using Class 170 'Turbostars' 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. Southern railway services from Southampton and Portsmouth to Brighton were improved to compensate for that.

Platforms
The station has five platforms, all 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.

Platform 1
Platform 1 is the closest to the main entrance on the south side. It is used by terminating slow services to and from London Waterloo. Regional services to Southampton and Poole also stop here, along with westbound CrossCountry services to Southampton and Bournemouth.

Platforms 2 & 3
Platform 2 is on the south side of the island platform with Platform 3 on the north. Platform 2 is used by the other down mainline services to Portsmouth and Southampton from Waterloo. It is also used by trains on the West of England Main Line to Salisbury, where every other train continues to Exeter. Some peak-time trains divide at Salisbury with one portion running to Bristol Temple Meads. Up trains use Platform 3 and are the fastest trains to London Waterloo.

Platform 4
Some slower trains to London Waterloo use Platform 4, on the northern side of station. It is also used by northbound CrossCountry which head to Reading before reversing and continuing to Birmingham, and onwards to the north. Northbound freight trains from Southampton docks heading this way also pass through here. The rear entrance to the station is located on this platform.

Platform 5
Platform 5 is a bay platform used by stopping services to Reading on the Reading to Basingstoke Line operated by First Great Western.

Facilities
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.

Incidents
On 19 December 2008 an over-height container on the Wakefield Europort to Southampton Docks service struck and damaged 140 yd of the canopy of platform 1. The train was stopped before it reached the tunnels north of Micheldever.

Motive Power Depots


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 June 1967. It was demolished in 1969.

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.

Services
Typical off peak service patterns: South West Trains South Western Main Line - Eastbound South Western Main Line - Westbound
 * 7tph London Waterloo, of which:
 * 1tph only calls at Clapham Junction
 * 1tph only calls at Woking
 * 1tph calls at Woking and Clapham Junction
 * 1tph calls at Farnborough (Main) and Woking
 * 1tph calls at Fleet, Farnborough (Main) and Clapham Junction
 * 2tph stopping which start here, calling at all stations to Woking then Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames and Surbiton, then:
 * 1tph calls at Clapham Junction, and the other doesn't.
 * 3tph Winchester, of which:
 * 1tph Portsmouth Harbour
 * 2tph Southampton Central, of which:
 * 1tph Poole
 * 1tph Weymouth

West of England Main Line CrossCountry
 * 2tph Salisbury, of which:
 * 1tph to Exeter St Davids
 * 1tph Birmingham and then to Manchester Piccadilly
 * 1tph Bournemouth

First Great Western
 * 2tph Reading