Guildford railway station explained

Guildford
Symbol Location:gb
Symbol:rail
Borough:Guildford, Borough of Guildford
Country:England
Grid Name:Grid reference
Manager:Network Rail
Platforms:8 (7 In Use)
Code:GLD
Classification:DfT category B
Opened:5 May 1845
Footnotes:Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Guildford railway station is at one of three main railway junctions on the Portsmouth Direct Line and serves the town of Guildford in Surrey, England. It is 30miles down the line from via Woking.[1]

It provides an interchange station for two other railway lines: the North Downs Line northwards towards, which has a connection to ; the same line eastwards to ; and the New Guildford Line, the alternative route to, via Cobham or .

Guildford station is the larger, more frequently and more diversely served of the two stations in Guildford town centre, the other being on the New Guildford Line.

History

The station was opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on 5 May 1845,[2] but was substantially enlarged and rebuilt in 1880. The Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway opened its services on 4 July 1849, and was operated by the South Eastern Railway. LSWR services to via began on 8 October 1849 and the New Guildford Line to and on 2 February 1885. On the latter line is the other Guildford station, London Road. The line to it describes a curve around the town on an embankment, crossing the River Wey by a high bridge.

Guildford station was also the northern terminus of the former Cranleigh Line which was opened 2 October 1865 by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and closed almost one hundred years later on 12 June 1965.[3] This line ran to by way of, and .

Accidents and incidents

Platform layout

The main station buildings are on the Down side. At the end of the Down side platform is a bay for the New Guildford Line. There are now three islands with seven platform faces plus the bay linked by both a long footbridge and a subway. Platforms 6 and 7 are opposite sides of the same line: these were used for unloading mail and parcels until the mid-1990s. The station was completely rebuilt (except for the platforms) by British Rail in the late 1980s.

Platforms 6 and 7 are on opposite sides of the same single line. Automatic train doors only open on the platform 6 side. Today doors are not opened on platform 7 due to the live rail being on that side, hence rendering that platform disused. Platform 6 is signalled for bi-directional working – trains may approach from either direction.

Motive Power Depot

Guildford station was the site of an important motive power depot opened by the LSWR in 1845. The original building was demolished in 1887 to make room for the enlargement of the station, and was replaced by a semi-roundhouse which was substantially enlarged in 1897. This was closed and demolished in 1967.[8] The Farnham Road multi-storey car park was built on the site in 1988.[9]

Airtrack

Guildford station was to have been the southern terminus for the proposed Heathrow Airtrack rail service. The project, promoted by BAA, envisaged the construction of a spur from the Waterloo to Reading Line to Heathrow Airport, creating direct rail links from the airport to Guildford, Waterloo, and . Airtrack was planned to open in 2015, subject to government approval.[10] In April 2011, BAA announced that it was abandoning the project,[11] citing the unavailability of government subsidy and other priorities for Heathrow,[12] such as linking to Crossrail and High Speed 2.

Services

Guildford is served regularly by trains operated by South Western Railway and Great Western Railway.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:

Services at Guildford are operated using a mixture of rolling stock including classes: 444, 450 and 455 EMUs, and Class 165 and 166 DMUs. South Western Railway is replacing their Class 455 EMUs with Class 701 "Arterio" EMUs, meaning that these new trains will stop at Guildford station in the future.[13]

External links

51.237°N -0.58°W

Notes and References

  1. Book: Padgett . David . Kelman . Leanne . Munsey . Myles . Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL . 4th . November 2019 . 1994 . Trackmaps . Frome . 978-1-9996271-2-6 . map 26 .
  2. Book: White . H P . A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol 2, Southern England . 1982 . . Newton Abbot . 0-7153-8365-5 . 126–128.
  3. Web site: Cranleigh Railway Line: The Guildford and Horsham Direct Railway. ~ 1865 to 1965. Cranleigh Railway. 2007-04-23.
  4. Book: Moody, G.T. . Southern Electric 1909–1979 . 1957 . 1979 . Fifth . Ian Allan Ltd . Shepperton . 122 . 0-7110-0924-4.
  5. Book: Earnshaw, Alan . Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7 . 1991 . Atlantic Books . Penryn . 0-906899-50-8 . 44.
  6. News: Rail experts probe South West Trains blasts after upgrade. 25 July 2017. BBC News. 25 July 2017.
  7. Web site: Explosion in an underframe equipment case at Guildford 7 July 2017 . Rail Accident Investigation Branch . 20 March 2018.
  8. Book: Griffiths. Roger. Smith. Paul. The directory of British engine sheds and principal locomotive servicing points: 1. Southern england, the midlands, East Anglia and Wales. Oxford Publishing Company. 1999. Oxford. 77. 0-86093-542-6.
  9. Book: Mitchell . Vic . Smith . Keith . 1989 . Guildford to Redhill . Country rail routes . Middleton Press . Midhurst . 0-9065-2063-0 . Fig. 18 .
  10. Web site: Heathrow Airtrack. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100106232849/http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/page/Heathrow%5EGeneral%5EOur+business+and+community%5EHeathrow+transformation%5EHeathrow+AirTrack/100046e4daa55110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____/448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____/. January 6, 2010. BAA. 6 January 2010.
  11. Web site: Heathrow Airtrack Waterloo rail link shelved by BAA . BBC News London . 11 April 2011 . 11 April 2011 .
  12. Web site: Heathrow: 'No option but to withdraw proposed Airtrack link to Staines' . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120118181237/http://www.rail.co/2011/04/11/heathrow-no-option-but-to-withdraw-proposed-airtrack-link-to-staines/. January 18, 2012. Samuel . A. . Rail News from Rail.co . 11 April 2011 . 11 April 2011 .
  13. Web site: Arterio Our Trains South Western Railway . 2023-08-25 . Southwestern Railway . en.