Woking railway station

Woking railway station is a major stop in Woking, England, on the South Western Main Line used by many commuters. Woking station is served by a number of rail services including:
 * the Alton Line calling at stations to Alton
 * the Portsmouth Direct Line to Guildford and stations to Portsmouth
 * the South Western Main Line to Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth and the south coast
 * the West of England Main Line to Salisbury, Dorset, Exeter and stations in South West England
 * Woking station also is the southern terminus for the Waterloo to Woking stopping service

Fast trains from Woking take approximately twenty-six minutes to reach Waterloo (some stop at Clapham Junction). Trains from the Alton Line take roughly thirty-five minutes, and the stopping service fifty minutes, to Waterloo.

A twice-hourly RailAir bus service runs between the terminus located beside the station and Heathrow Airport, a journey of about fifty minutes.



History
The London and Southampton Railway (L&SR) was authorised on 25 July 1834. It was built and opened in stages, and the first section, that between the London terminus at Nine Elms and Woking Common was opened on 21 May 1838. Woking Common became a through station with the opening of the next section of the line, as far as Winchfield, on 24 September that year. On 4 June 1839, the L&SR was renamed the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), and Woking Common station assumed its current name of Woking c. 1843.

Woking became a junction with the opening of the Guildford Junction Railway (GJR) on 5 May 1845; it had been authorised less than a year earlier, on 10 May 1844. The GJR was always operated by the LSWR, and was absorbed by that company on 4 August 1845.

Platforms
Woking Station has six platforms.
 * Platform 1 - Fast and semi-fast London Trains. Situated on the north side of the station.
 * Platform 2 - Fast London services.
 * Platform 3 - Stopping service to/from London. Situated at the easternmost end of platforms 2/4.
 * Platform 4 - Fast trains to Basingstoke, Southampton, Weymouth, Salisbury and Exeter.
 * Platform 5 - Portsmouth line, Alton line, Basingstoke stopping.
 * Platform 6 - a south facing bay platform, the first train of the day to Portsmouth Harbour via Eastleigh start from this platform, and it is often used to stable diesel locomotives in the event of a train failure.

Services

 * 14tph to London Waterloo, of which:
 * 5tph run non-stop
 * 3tph call at Clapham Junction
 * 2tph call at Weybridge and Walton on Thames and Surbiton, of which:
 * 1tph call at Clapham Junction (xx.29), and 1tph does not (xx.59)
 * 2tph call at West Byfleet and Surbiton, of which:
 * 1tph calls at Clapham Junction (xx.22), and 1tph does not (xx.52)
 * 2tph call at all stations apart from Berrylands, New Malden, Raynes Park and Queenstown Road (xx.03) and (xx.33)
 * 4tph on the Portsmouth Direct Line, of which
 * 2tph fast to Portsmouth Harbour
 * 1tph stopping to Portsmouth and Southsea
 * 1tph stopping to Haslemere
 * 6tph on the South Western Main Line, of which
 * 2tph stopping to Basingstoke
 * 2tph to Alton
 * 1tph to Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke
 * 1tph to Weymouth
 * Two slower trains to Weymouth, Yeovil Jct, Exeter and Poole pass through Woking without stopping - the only passenger services which do so
 * 2tph on the West of England Main Line
 * 1tph to Exeter St Davids
 * 1tph to Salisbury

In popular culture

 * Woking Station was destroyed in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
 * Woking Station can be seen throughout the 1995 music video for 'You Do Something To Me' by Paul Weller.