Alton railway station serves the market town of Alton, in the English county of Hampshire. The station is the terminus for two railway lines: the Alton line, which runs to Brookwood and on to London Waterloo, and the Watercress Line, a heritage railway which runs to Alresford. It is located from London Waterloo.
History
The first station, opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on 28 July 1852, was sited on what is now the station car park. It closed when the present station opened on 2 October 1865. The station was briefly named Alton for Selborne between 5 July 1926 and 1955, when it reverted to its current name.
The line, originally built as single track, was doubled in 1901. The line from to Alton was electrified in 1937 and the station passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The line was single-tracked as far as Farnham by British Rail in the early 1980s.
The Alton, Alresford and Winchester Railway - later renamed the Mid-Hants Railway - opened a through line to Winchester in October 1865, but this was closed to passengers in February 1973.Body, p.33 It reopened as a heritage line in stages - first from Alresford to Ropley in 1977, and through to Alton by May 1985.
The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened on 1 June 1901. Due to low passenger traffic and the distance from the intermediate stations to their namesake villages,Hampshire Herald & Alton Gazette, 8 June 1901, quoted in Maggs, page 91 the line closed at short notice on 1 January 1917., pages 33 and 34 The line was reopened due to local pressure on 18 August 1924, but the line closed again permanently in 1967.
The Meon Valley Railway between Alton and Fareham opened two years after the B&ALR, on 1 June 1903.H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume II: Southern England, Phoenix House, London, 1961, page 124 Again, it was deemed financially unsustainable, and in February 1955 closed to passenger traffic, with the final section of line to Farringdon closing permanently in 1968.David Fereday Glenn, Rail Routes in Hampshire and East Dorset, Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1983, , pages 23 and 24
Location The station is nowhere near Alton Towers Resort, which is located in the rural village of Alton in Staffordshire, about 185 miles away. Local residents, who have encountered many people trying to find Alton Towers, have put up posters at the station containing directions from the station to the resort by train, with a journey time of approximately 4 hours and 46 minutes.
Facilities There is a ticket office which is open seven days a week, with a ticket machine beside the booking hall. There are automated announcements and digital information displays to offer train running details. A car park with 207 spaces is available for passengers.
Passenger volume +Passenger Volume at Alton2002–032004–052005–062006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–202020–212021–222022–23Entries and exits400,944480,790498,254548,291625,926650,674706,582720,478717,170720,584697,306744,138753,202716,162710,322711,292679,324133,396386,882496,032 The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services The standard off-peak service provides two trains per hour to London Waterloo. On Sundays, there is an hourly service, increasing to half-hourly from approximately 13:30. Services are operated by South Western Railway.
References
Bibliography Body, G. (1984), PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Southern Region, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge.
External links
Station on navigable O.S. map