Guildford railway station


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 down the line from.
It provides an interchange station for two other railway lines: the North Downs Line northwards towards Reading, which has a connection to Aldershot; the same line eastwards to Redhill; and the New Guildford Line, the alternative route to Waterloo, via Cobham or Epsom.
Guildford station is the larger, more frequently and more diversely served of the two stations in Guildford town centre, the other being London Road on the New Guildford Line.

History

The station was opened by the London and South Western Railway on 5 May 1845, 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 Farnham via Tongham began on 8 October 1849 and the New Guildford Line to Leatherhead and Epsom Downs 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 Cranleigh Line of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, which opened 2 October 1865 and closed almost one hundred years later on 12 June 1965. This line ran to Horsham by way of Cranleigh, Rudgwick and Christ's Hospital.
There are currently plans to rebuild the station and regenerate the surrounding area, with works starting in October 2019.

Accidents and incidents

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 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. The Farnham Road multi-storey car park was built on the site in the 1990s.

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. In April 2011, BAA announced that it was abandoning the project, citing the unavailability of government subsidy and other priorities for Heathrow, such as linking to Crossrail and HS2.

Services

operate mainline and suburban northbound services to London Waterloo. Southbound destinations include: Portsmouth Harbour, Haslemere and Farnham. Great Western Railway operate northbound services to Reading and southbound services to Redhill and less frequently extended to Gatwick Airport. Southern only operate limited services to London Bridge. CrossCountry operates a daily service to Newcastle.