Dorchester South railway station

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Dorchester South

Location

Place

Dorchester

Local authority

West Dorset

Operations

Station code

DCH

Managed by

South West Trains

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

0.376 million

2005/06 *

0.379 million

History

Key dates

Opened 1 June 1847

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 Dorchester South from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

A 1937 Ordnance Survey of Dorchester showing the location of the Dorchester South and Dorchester West

Dorchester South railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town of Dorchester in Dorset. The station is located on the London Waterloo–Weymouth main line.

1 Services
2 History
3 Future plans
4 Images
5 Further reading
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Services

The station is served by South West Trains. Services originate from London Waterloo or Weymouth Station and are operated by Class 444 and Class 450 Electric Multiple Units

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Wareham		South West Trains London-Weymouth express services		Weymouth
Moreton		South West Trains London-Weymouth semi-fast services		Upwey

[edit] History

The station opened in 1847 when the Southampton and Dorchester Railway from Hamworthy Junction was completed. The station was built as an east facing terminus with the intent of continuing the line westwards towards Exeter. These plans were never realised, and instead another line was built from the terminus towards Weymouth. This joined with the Great Western Railway's line (now the Heart of Wessex Line) from Dorchester West and continued as a joint line to Weymouth.

South station remained a terminus with trains from Bournemouth having to enter the station, reverse out back the way they came then reverse again and proceed to Weymouth. Trains from Weymouth had to pass the station, then reverse into it, and then back out. This process often caused delays and brought criticism following an accident in 1877. As a result, a curved platform was provided for southbound trains, but eastbound trains still had to reverse into the original platform. It wasn't until 1970 that these trains were provided with a platform on the curve. In 1989, the station was rebuilt with a new booking hall by the curved platforms rather than the now redundant terminus platform.

[edit] Future plans

Although the current station was only rebuilt in 1989, there are plans for a new station on the current site in the coming years. Also there are plans to redevelop the Eldridge Pope Brewery site with hotels, apartments and houses planned amongst others. It is planned to turn the station into the first ever Solar powered railway station in Britain. This would take several years to come into action but the station would not change drastically, instead the building on Platform 1 would have a new solar panel as a roof.