Botley railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Botley

Botley station (seen from road bridge)

Location

Place

Botley

Local authority

Winchester (district)

Operations

Station code

BOE

Managed by

South West Trains

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

80,925

2005/06 *

87,987

History

Key dates

Opened 29 November 1841

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Botley from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Botley railway station is a railway station in Botley, Hampshire.

[edit] History

Botley station was opened in 1841 by the LSWR. Botley was once the junction for the Bishops Waltham branch which was opened in 1863 and finally closed to freight in 1962. Some of the track from the branch still exists as a long siding, used by Foster Yeoman who operate an aggregate railhead depot and coated roadstone plant at Botley station.

The photograph shows the view northwards in the direction of Eastleigh and London. The bay platform and signal-box for the closed Bishops Waltham line can be seen to the right, as can the junction itself which is in the middle distance. The Foster Yeoman plant is at the top of the picture, occupying land on both sides of the line.

The station was a major loading point for strawberry traffic until about 1940, with trains taking the local produce up to London. All traffic declined from 1950 onwards, but began to build again in the 1990s with the reintroduction of direct services to London for the first time since before the war. The line was electrified on the "3rd rail" system in the 1990s as well.