| Walton-on-Thames | |
| Symbol Location: | gb |
| Symbol: | rail |
| Borough: | Walton-on-Thames, Elmbridge |
| Country: | England |
| Coordinates: | 51.3728°N -0.4143°W |
| Grid Name: | Grid reference |
| Manager: | South Western Railway |
| Platforms: | 4 |
| Code: | WAL |
| Classification: | DfT category C2 |
| Opened: | 21 May 1838 |
| Footnotes: | Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
Walton-on-Thames railway station is at the southern edge of the town of Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England and borders Burwood Park, Hersham. It is 17chain6chain from and is situated between and .
The station's main entrance borders the Ashley Park area of the largely residential town and features a taxi rank and pick-up apron. The station opened as Walton for Hersham in 1838 and today has rush hour services two stops from central London.
Only the two outer platforms on the slow lines are currently used. The central island platform is disused.
Services from Walton-on-Thames are split into rush hour (Monday - Friday, early mornings and evenings), off peak (Monday - Friday, Saturday) and Sunday.[1]
Rush hour services to London Waterloo only operate in the morning, and services to Woking and Guildford operate in the evening rush hour with one service running semi fast to Basingstoke.
There are also three direct trains to Portsmouth Harbour two via Basingstoke one via Guildford per day, Mon - Sat, and one direct train to Branksome in the early morning. In the evening there are two services from Portsmouth Harbour via Basingstoke and one from Weymouth to Walton on Thames.
The station first operated in 1838, and was one of the first stations on the South West Main Line, between Ditton Marsh (now Esher) and Weybridge. The first services ran from Nine Elms to Woking Common (now Woking).[2]
The middle platforms were abandoned when slower services only used the outer tracks, leaving the inside tracks for non stop services to Woking.
Walton-on-Thames railway station was one of the first stations selected by South West Trains to have automatic ticket gates installed at all of the exits to the station.[3] These were installed and in operation on 25 June 2009. There were also smartcard validators installed, intended (in the future) for use when the barriers are unattended and open. As of June 2018, there was a digital barcode scanner installed for mobile ticketing on Platform 1.
Ramps were installed on 31 October 2009, making both platforms accessible to all from street level. Access from the Ashley Park / ticket office side of the station to the Burwood Park side requires use of the railway-owned subway which is via a short flight of steps or a detour of more than by road.
This station has a taxi rank and bus stops. Bus routes 458 and 555 serve the station, both connecting passengers to the town centre.[4]
In 2016, a petition was started by a local resident calling for London Travelcard Zone 6 to be extended to include this station, as well as and stations.[5] In December 2022, Elmbridge Borough Council reaffirmed its commitment to lobby for Walton-on-Thames to be included in Zone 6.[6]
A £6M station improvement programme, funded by the Department for Transport under the "Access for All" scheme, began in October 2022. Part of the project included the installation of a new footbridge connecting the two in-use platforms.[7]
The station is just north of the approximate midpoint of the medieval parish boundaries of Walton.[8] Today it is on the southern boundary of Walton and the northern boundary of Hersham,[9] and more particularly between two large-plot, neighbourhoods of detached homes, Burwood Park and Ashley Park. These are predominantly low rise and have avenues and greens; they are not a conservation area with no buildings which pre-date 1750 but the former has one or two listed buildings for architecture.[10] The commercial centre of Walton is north.