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Winchester railway station is a
railway station in Winchester in the county of Hampshire,
England. It is on the South West Main Line and was known as
Winchester City from 1949–67 to distinguish it from Winchester (Chesil)
station. It is 66 miles 39 chains (107.0 km) down the line from
London Waterloo.
Despite its prominence (most passenger trains stop here), the
station only has two platforms. One is on the western side, with
the line running in a northerly direction via Basingstoke,
Woking and Clapham Junction, towards the terminal at Waterloo.
The other is on the eastern side, with the line running in a
southerly direction, towards Eastleigh, where it splits and runs
towards Southampton Central, Bournemouth and Weymouth or
Portsmouth Harbour.
The station was opened on 10 June 1839 by the London and
Southampton Railway (later the London and South Western
Railway). It became a temporary terminus for the Winchester to
Southampton section. On the same day, another station was opened
at Basingstoke, which was a temporary terminus of the London to
Basingstoke section.
The following year, a line was built joining Winchester and
Basingstoke and the line was complete. This line was the
trickiest to construct and had four tunnels and a single station
called Andover Road (now Micheldever), rather optimistically
given that Andover lay 13 miles (21 km) west. Winchester became
a through station on 30 March 1840.
As the line bypassed Kingston upon Thames, Winchester was the
only major settlement on the line between London and
Southampton. Since the original Southampton line ran via the
then small market town of Basingstoke (where lines to the west
would be built), it was not very direct. Another line was
constructed to run via Guildford, Farnham and Alton, which
joined the main line north of Winchester. The present day line
runs via Aldershot instead of Guildford, and the line finishes
at Alton. British Rail closed the line from Alton to Winchester
in 1973 but a section from Alton to Alresford is preserved as
the Watercress Line. The final gap from Alresford to Winchester
is unlikely ever to be reinstated owing to housing having been
built on the trackbed.
Later, the Great Western Railway built the Didcot, Newbury and
Southampton Railway. This passed at a separate station on the
eastern side of Winchester, when opened called Winchester
Cheesehill, later Winchester (Chesil). In 1949, it was renamed
Winchester Chesil, whilst Winchester's main station was renamed
Winchester City. This did not last long: In 1966 Chesil closed
and an alternative diversionary route to Oxford, Birmingham and
beyond, bypassing Basingstoke and Reading, was consequently
lost. The following year British Rail changed the station name
from Winchester City to Winchester.
Renovations in summer 2004 gave the western side a refurbished
entrance and second ticket office; albeit with shorter opening
hours than that on the eastern side.
In summer 2009, both platforms received ticket barriers with
CCTV, with the entrance to platform 2 from the forecourt
reorganised as part of South West Trains' plan to fit or refit
ticket barriers on the busiest stations on the network.
In July 2013, A brand new footbridge was constructed between the
platforms and also features lifts.
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