Aldershot railway station is located near the town centre of

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England. It is down the line from . It is on the

Alton Line The Alton line is a railway line in Hampshire and Surrey, England, operated by South Western Railway as a relatively long branch of the South West Main Line. The branch leaves the main line at Pirbright Junction to the west of Brookwood stati ...

, part of the

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

network, with train services and station facilities provided by South Western Railway. It has the three-letter code AHT. The station's National Location Code (NLC) is 5623.

History

The

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

opened the station in 1870. It became part of the Southern Railway in the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

. The station then passed to the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...

on nationalisation in 1948.

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the net ...

operated and served the station after British Rail Sectorised itself in 1982. South West Trains has operated and served the station since the

Privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...

ways in 1996. Aldershot railway station

Services

Train destinations are normally , , , and . Trains are usually routed to London Waterloo via with three services in the morning peak scheduled to go the longer slower route via Ascot (included as part of the normal Aldershot to Ascot service) and two returning via this route in the evening.GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Tables 149 & 155 The typical off-peak service (Monday to Saturday) from the station is: * 2 trains per hour to London Waterloo, * 2 trains per hour to Alton, * 2 trains per hour to Guildford, * 2 trains per hour to Ascot, * 4 trains per hour to Farnham.

Ticket machines

There are two new TicketXpress ticket vending machines which now reside outside the entrance to the booking hall, making them accessible when the station booking hall is closed. They are available at all times, except when remotely disabled when there is no service, such as at Christmas. These new machines sell tickets to many stations in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and accept major

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

and

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit ...

cards. The QuickFare self-service ticket machine (removed October 2006) accepted

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

s and

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s and issued tickets to a variety of local destinations, as well as issuing tickets for the station

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

. Discounts were available for holders of most

Railcards There is no single 'discount railcard' available on the UK railway network. In addition to the large number and variety of short-term or localised promotional fares that have been available to passengers on the British railway network in recent d ...

. QuickFare ticket machines were used by British Rail and the Train Companies for many years, providing easy access to tickets at unstaffed stations and at times when ticket offices were closed. The QuickFare ticket machine at Aldershot station was inside the booking hall on platform one. The place where it once stood is now occupied by the "scu" (the control centre that operates the new gateline).

Rolling stock

Services are mainly run using a four, eight or twelve car Class 450 and 2 cycles can be carried per train. Class 444 Desiro five-car units are seen from time to time. Up to 2005, ex-British Rail slam-door EMUs were used on the Alton Line, many of which were berthed at the carriage sidings south of Farnham station. The carriage shed at Farnham was built in 1937 around the time that the line was electrified. The most commonly operated EMUs in recent years were Class 411, Class 421 and Class 423 units. These trains were withdrawn in 2005, except for a very few that were transferred to the Lymington Branch.

Platforms

The station has three platforms. The station entrance and ticket office is by Platform 1. Tracks by Platforms 2 and 3 are signalled for bi-directional operation. Platforms 2 and 3 are reached by way of the original subway and a more recent covered footbridge. Lifts are incorporated into the footbridge for disabled access.

Local features

As trains approach Farnham to the south, the mileage suddenly jumps to a higher one. This is because mileages between the site of Farnham Junction (by the electric substation just before the A31 flyover bridge) and (the end of the line that formerly continued to Winchester) are reckoned from via and the now closed line via and . The line from Waterloo via and Aldershot was built significantly later than that via and . About 450m north-east of the station (towards Ash and can be seen from near the end of platform 1) is Aldershot Railway Tunnel, also known as Redan Hill Tunnel. It is 76 yards long.

Gallery

File:Aldershot railway station in the snow (large).jpg, The station in the snow. File:AHT_Quickfare_machine.jpg, QuickFare

ticket machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instanc ...

File:Aldershot, Ash, Shalford, Basingstoke, Guildford & Peasmarsh , Wimbledon RJD 4.jpg, A 1912

Railway Clearing House The Railway Clearing House (RCH) was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by pre-grouping railway companies for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or using the rolling stock) of other compani ...

map of lines around Aldershot

References

Sources

* * *
Station on navigable Ordnance Survey map

List of Railway Tunnels

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldershot Railway Station Buildings and structures in Aldershot Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Hampshire DfT Category C2 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1870 Railway stations served by South Western Railway