Salisbury railway station


 * This article is about the railway station in the United Kingdom. For the railway station in Brisbane, Australia, see Salisbury railway station, Brisbane. For the railway station in Adelaide, Australia, see Salisbury railway station, Adelaide.

Salisbury railway station is located in the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, 83.75 mi south-west of London Waterloo. It is operated by South West Trains (SWT) but also served by First Great Western (FGW). Salisbury is the crossing point of two routes: SWT's West of England Main Line between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids, and FGW's Wessex Main Line between Cardiff Central and Portsmouth Harbour/Brighton. In the past it was also served by trains to destinations such as Ilfracombe, and Plymouth.

History
There have been three different railway stations in the city of Salisbury, built by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) from 1847 and the Great Western Railway (GWR) from 1856, as well as two further railway stations at Wilton, two and a half miles away.

London and South Western Railway
The LSWR opened their Milford station on the Eastern side of the city in 1 March 1847, with the opening of their branch line from Southampton to passenger traffic. For nearly a decade this was the only rail route to the city, until 30 June 1856 when the GWR opened their branch line from Westbury, and 1 May 1857 when the LSWR extended their main line from London to Andover.

On 2 May 1859 the LSWR opened a new station on the south side of the Great Western station, west of Fisherton Street, to coincide with the opening the first section of the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway was opened as an extension of the LSWR's line. As the two railways were built using different gauges through goods traffic had to be unloaded and transhipped in a transfer shed; a footbridge was opened in 1860 linking the two stations to allow passengers to change trains. The LSWR station had a single long platform served by trains in both directions and a second bay platform was provided at the London end.

In the 1870s the LSWR opened a second platform east of Fisherton Street for services towards London; it had an entrance from the street and was linked to the old platform by a subway. It too had another bay platform for trains to the East.

The LSWR station was again enlarged between 1899 and 1902 and the 1870s platform east of Fisherton Street could then be closed. Two new platforms serving three tracks were opened between the GWR platforms and the original LSWR one, reached by a subway from the LSWR's new station offices which were built on the west side of their original building of 1859.

In the early morning of 1 July 1906 an overnight boat train derailed in Salisbury station, killing 24 passengers and 4 railwaymen.

Great Western Railway
The (GWR) opened their broad gauge Salisbury branch line from Westbury on 30 June 1856. The terminus was on the north side of Salisbury on the west side of Fisherton Street. Isambard Kingdom Brunel provided a brick-built station with a wooden train shed to cover the tracks.

The GWR converted their line to standard gauge in 1874 and four years later a connecting line was laid between the two railways which allowed wagons to be shunted between the two stations. In 1896 a through service between Cardiff on the GWR and Portsmouth on the LSWR began operating over a j