Fratton station
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Fratton railway station is a railway station in the city of Portsmouth, on Portsea Island in the United Kingdom. It was opened in the
Fratton Fratton is a residential and formerly industrial area of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. Victorian style terraced houses are dominant in the area, typical of most residential areas of Portsmouth. Fratton has many discount shops and "greasy spoo ...
area of Portsmouth on 1 July 1885 as an interchange station between the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the short-lived Southsea Railway branchline. Fratton railway station and the Southsea Railway were jointly opened on 1 July 1885 by Lady Ada Mary Willis, wife of General Sir George Willis, the Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth. On 4 July 1905, Fratton railway station's name was changed to ''Fratton & Southsea'' to promote its Southsea Railway branchline link to the seaside resort of Southsea. After the Southsea Railway branchline was closed on 6 August 1914, the name of the station was eventually changed back to ''Fratton'' on 1 December 1921. The ''Southsea'' name was later reused in 1925 to rename Portsmouth's main ''Portsmouth Town'' station to '' Portsmouth & Southsea'', as Portsmouth would be elevated from a town to city status in 1926. One mile to the east of Fratton railway station is
Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...
, built in 1899 as the home football ground of
Portsmouth F.C. Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...
Fratton Park's naming was purposely influenced by its proximity to the convenient Fratton railway station, although the stadium is actually located in the
Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
district of Portsmouth. Today, Fratton station is located on the Portsmouth Direct Line which runs between
London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...
and Portsmouth Harbour. Fratton is one of the four railway stations on Portsea Island. Due to its location as the last south-bound stop before the main Portsmouth & Southsea railway station, Fratton has been adopted in naval slang as a euphemism for the
withdrawal method ''Coitus interruptus'', also known as withdrawal, pulling out or the pull-out method, is a method of birth control in which a man, during sexual intercourse, withdraws his penis from a woman's vagina prior to ejaculation and then directs his ...
of contraception, "''to get off at Fratton''".


Platforms

Normally, platforms 2 and 3 serve and , with platform 1 serving all other destinations. Platforms 2 and 3 are also signalled to allow northbound passenger departures. Between 1885 and 1914, a separate island platform at Fratton station served as the interchange platform to the short-lived Southsea Railway branchline. The island was accessed from a staircase built on the south-east side of the main footbridge. This island was demolished after the Southsea Railway was closed. A modern train washing machine structure is now located on the site.


History

The line through Fratton and into central Portsmouth was laid on the abandoned dry canal bed of the unsuccessful
Portsmouth and Arundel Canal The Portsmouth and Arundel Canal was a canal in the south of England that ran between Portsmouth and Ford in the Arundel district, it was built in 1823 but was never a financial success and was abandoned in 1855; the company was wound up in 1888 ...
, which was opened in 1823 and closed in 1827, after seawater from the canal contaminated some of Portsmouth's fresh water wells. In 1845 parts of this section were sold to the Chichester to Portsmouth Branch Railway company with another section being sold to the company in 1851. The former canal walls are still clearly visible between Fratton and Portsmouth city centre today. Canal barges also had an alternative route to and from Portsmouth via
Portsbridge Creek Portsbridge Creek, also known as Portcreek, Portsea Creek, Canal Creek and Ports Creek, is a tidal waterway just off the southern coast of England that runs between Portsea Island and the mainland from Langstone Harbour to Tipner Lake. Through ...
, avoiding the need to move through Portsea Island. The railway line through Fratton was planned by the Brighton and Chichester Railway as part of the Chichester to Portsmouth Branch Railway, approved in 1845. The line was completed in 1847, the Brighton and Chichester railway merging with several other companies to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846, who went on to operate the line. Fratton railway station was planned and built to serve as an interchange station between Portsmouth and the new one-and-a-quarter mile (2 km) long Southsea Railway branch line, built to serve the fashionable Victorian seaside resort of Southsea. It was built with an additional island platform to the south of the station's three main platforms, which specifically served the Southsea Railway and was reached by a staircase leading from the main overhead footbridge. This island platform and staircase was removed after the Southsea Railway was closed, its former location now has a modern train washing facility built over it. Originally, an alternative interchange station for the Southsea Railway was to be built at Copnor, Portsmouth - at the purposely built Station Road - but was never was, with Fratton being the later preferred location. Ironically, Station Road still survives in Copnor today. The unbuilt station site, near today's Copnor Bridge, has since been developed with a short row of terraced houses, a bus stop and a public lavatory block. Fratton railway station and the Southsea Railway were jointly opened on 1 July 1885 by Lady Ada Mary Willis (née Neeld), wife of General Sir George Willis, the Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth. Fratton railway station was used as the interchange station to the Southsea Railway branch line, whose original 1885 terminus at Southsea station was built on Granada Road, Southsea, replaced by East Southsea in 1904. On 4 July 1905, Fratton railway station's name was changed to ''Fratton & Southsea''. In 1891, the main ''Portsmouth Town'' engine sheds were moved to the railway sidings at Fratton. By 1914, with the threat of the First World War and an urgent need to expand railway freight sidings in Fratton, the loss-making Southsea Railway branch line was closed to passengers on 6 August 1914 and became an overflow freight siding, and never reopened. After the war, ''Fratton & Southsea'' reverted to its original name of ''Fratton'' on 1 December 1921. The ''Southsea'' name was later reused to rename the main ''Portsmouth Town'' station in 1925, to '' Portsmouth & Southsea''. After the Motive power depot closed in the late 1950s, some former sidings were used during the withdrawal of the South West Trains greyhound fleet around 2003. The same sidings were then used in 2007 and in 2009 for freight trials, this involved
DB Schenker Rail (UK) DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)), is a British rail freight company headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established in early 1995 as ''North & South Railways'', successful ...
hauling small container trains to and from Eastleigh. The Idea was abandoned in 2010 due to running costs.


Portsmouth Area Resignalling (PARS)

The Portsmouth Area Resignalling project was instigated in late 2006, aiming to improve the flexibility of the track layout in the Fratton area. Platform 1 became the Up Main, Platform 3 became the Down Main with Platform 2 as a bidirectional through platform (although the main function of platform 2 is down line trains). Prior to the project, trains could not reverse south to north at Fratton in service. The work, scheduled by Network Rail to take place between 23 December 2006 and 4 February 2007, was subject to a massive overrun. The works were first extended six weeks into mid-March 2007 but in late February it became obvious that there were major problems with the new equipment being installed by the contractor Siemens AG. Until 1 April 2007 there were only three trains per hour between Fratton and Portsmouth Harbour with the remaining services terminating at Fratton and passengers using a replacement bus service. After 2 April 2007 there were five trains per hour running between Fratton and Portsmouth - three South West Trains services, one
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
service and one
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
service with some services still terminating at Fratton with passengers forced to change to continue their journey. The 'six-week project' was eventually completed in October 2007 - some ten months after it started.


New footbridge

A new footbridge is now operational, linking the island platform (platforms 2 and 3) with the Up Main platform (1). This has stairs and lifts to allow disabled users full access to all trains, with lifts designed for easy wheelchair use.


Motive power depots

The London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly built a motive power depot at Fratton in 1891, replacing an earlier one at Portsmouth Town station. It was of the double roundhouse type. It came under the ownership of Southern Railway (Great Britain) in 1923 and
British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
in 1948. This building was badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War but repaired in 1948. It closed 2 November 1959, but the building continued to be used for stabling locomotives for several years. They were demolished in 1969. Fratton Traction Maintenance Depot, operated by South Western Railway now occupies part of the site.


Services

Services at Fratton are operated by South Western Railway,
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
and
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
. Typical off-peak services are as follows:


South Western Railway

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 3 tph to via (2 semi-fast, 1 stopping) * 1 tph to London Waterloo via * 1 tph to * 5 tph to of which 3 continue to South Western Railway services at Fratton are operated using and
EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...
.


Southern

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to * 3 tph to of which 2 continue to Southern services at Fratton are operated using and
EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...
.


Great Western Railway

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to Great Western Railway services at Fratton are operated using , and
DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
.


References


External links

Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland, S.K. Baker {{DEFAULTSORT:Fratton Railway Station Railway stations in Portsmouth DfT Category C2 stations Former Portsmouth and Ryde Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1885 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway