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General information | |
Location | Woking England |
Coordinates | 51°19′05″N 0°33′25″W / 51.318°N 0.557°WCoordinates: 51°19′05″N 0°33′25″W / 51.318°N 0.557°W |
Grid reference | TQ006587 |
Managed by | South Western Railway |
Platforms | 6 |
Other information | |
Station code | WOK |
Classification | DfT category B |
History | |
Original company | London and Southampton Railway |
Pre-grouping | London and South Western Railway |
Post-grouping | Southern Railway |
Key dates | |
21 May 1838 | Station opened as Woking Common |
c. 1843 | Renamed Woking |
Passengers | |
2016/17 | ![]() |
2017/18 | ![]() |
Interchange | ![]() |
2018/19 | ![]() |
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2019/20 | ![]() |
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2020/21 | ![]() |
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Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road |
Woking railway station is a major stop in Woking, England, on the South West Main Line used by many commuters. It is 24 miles 27 chains (39.2 km) down the line from London Waterloo. The station is managed by South Western Railway, who operate all trains serving it.
History
The London and Southampton Railway (L&SR) was authorised on 25 July 1834.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] On 4 June 1839, the L&SR was renamed the London and South Western Railway (LSWR),[4] and Woking Common station assumed its current name of Woking around 1843.[5]
Woking became a junction with the opening of the Guildford Junction Railway (GJR) on 5 May 1845;[6] it had been authorised less than a year earlier, on 10 May 1844.[7] The GJR was always operated by the LSWR, and was absorbed by that company on 4 August 1845.[8]
The signal box, built by the Southern Railway, is a Grade II listed building.[9]
Accidents and incidents
Three trains were involved in a collision just east of the station on 23 December 1955. A Portsmouth line electric train came to a stand at signals near the Maybury Hill Road bridge. The following steam-hauled Waterloo-Basingstoke train overran the Maybury distant signal and collided with the rear of the electric train, demolishing the guards compartment and deflecting the rear bogie so that it was foul of the up-line. An up Bournemouth steam-hauled train had just left the station and came into sidelong collision with the bogie and came to a stand. Out of around 1000 passengers and crew on the three trains only 21 were injured, including the guard of the electric train, and there were no fatalities. The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation report concluded the crash was due to human error on the part of the driver of the Basingstoke train.[10][11] The Basingstoke train locomotive, SR N15X class 32327 Trevithick, was damaged beyond economic repair and scrapped at Eastleigh Works.[12]
Services
Passenger
Many South Western Railway services call at Woking, including:
- the Alton Line calling at stations to Alton
- the Portsmouth Direct Line to Guildford and stations to Portsmouth
- the South West Main Line to Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth
- the West of England Main Line to Andover, Salisbury and Exeter
- The station is a terminus of the Waterloo to Woking stopping service
Fast trains from Woking take approximately 26 minutes to reach London Waterloo (some stop at Clapham Junction). Trains from the Alton Line take roughly 35 minutes, and the stopping service 50 minutes, to Waterloo.
An hourly RailAir bus service runs between the bus station on the north side of the station and Heathrow Airport, a journey of about 50 minutes.
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220701142031im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/159010_at_Woking_%2811894600086%29.jpg/220px-159010_at_Woking_%2811894600086%29.jpg)
Preceding station | ![]() |
Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Clapham Junction or London Waterloo |
South Western Railway Portsmouth Direct Line |
Guildford | ||
South Western Railway Portsmouth Direct Line (Stopping service) |
Worplesdon | |||
South Western Railway South West Main Line |
Farnborough (Main) or Winchester | |||
South Western Railway West of England Main Line |
Basingstoke | |||
West Byfleet | South Western Railway Alton Line |
Brookwood | ||
South Western Railway Waterloo to Woking (Stopping service) |
Terminus | |||
Weybridge | South Western Railway Waterloo to Basingstoke (Stopping service) |
Brookwood | ||
Historical railways | ||||
Staines | Anglia Railways London Crosslink |
Farnborough (Main) |
Platform layout
Woking station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Woking Station has six platforms, two of which are bay platforms.
- Platform 1 – Semi-fast London-bound services. Adjoins the main station house and town centre to the north.
- Platform 2 – Fast London-bound services. Part of a single island with 3 and 4 below.
- Platform 3 – East-facing bay for stopping service to and from London Waterloo. At the end of platforms 2 and 4.
- Platform 4 – Trains to Exeter St Davids, Portsmouth Harbour (via Basingstoke), Salisbury and Weymouth.
- Platform 5 – Portsmouth Direct Line services, Alton line and Basingstoke stopping services.
- Platform 6 – West-facing bay platform, used by the first train of the day to Portsmouth Harbour via Eastleigh, and often used to stable trains in the event of a train failure.[citation needed]
Freight
Woking still retains two sets of sidings, each to the west of the station. The down side yard, between the station and Woking junction, is now a Network Rail permanent way maintenance depot[13] and aggregates stone depot operated by Day Aggregates.[14] The up side sidings are used to stable specialist track maintenance machines and out of service passenger trains.[citation needed]
In popular culture
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220701142031im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Seated_Man_by_Sean_Henry.jpg/170px-Seated_Man_by_Sean_Henry.jpg)
- The station was destroyed in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.[15]
- Woking Station can be seen at the beginning of the 1995 music video for 'You Do Something To Me' by Paul Weller.[16]
- In the television adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story "The Commuter" for the series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, railway worker Ed Jacobson (played by Timothy Spall) works at Woking station, and discovers a non-existent destination on the Alton line.[17]
- Sean Henry's sculpture, Seated Man, waits patiently for his train on Platform 1.
References
- ^ Williams 1968, p. 20.
- ^ Williams 1968, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Williams 1968, p. 38.
- ^ Williams 1968, p. 122.
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 253.
- ^ Williams 1968, p. 132.
- ^ Williams 1968, p. 126.
- ^ Awdry 1990, p. 187.
- ^ Historic England. "Woking signal box (1236967)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
- ^ "Train crash's low injury toll a Christmas miracle". Woking News and Mail. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ "Report on the Collision which occurred on 23rd December 1955 near Woking in the Southern Region British Railways" (PDF). Railways Archive. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Earnshaw, Alan (1991). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7. Penryn: Atlantic Books. p. 18. ISBN 0-906899-50-8.
- ^ "Network Rail P-way Maintenance Depot". Nicelocal. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ "Aggregate Wharves and Rail Depots in South East England" (PDF). Gov.UK. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Wells 1975, p. 59.
- ^ YouTube upload of video showing station with Network SouthEast signage
- ^ McKeon, Christopher (29 September 2017). "Woking railway station is going to be on TV!". Get Surrey. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
Bibliography
- Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. CN 8983.
- Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
- Wells, H.G. (1975) [1898]. The War of the Worlds. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-24332-2.
- Williams, R.A. (1968). The London & South Western Railway, volume 1: The Formative Years. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4188-X.
External links
- Train times and station information for Woking railway station from National Rail