Ascot railway station

Ascot
Location
Place	Ascot
Local authority	Windsor and Maidenhead
Grid reference	SU921682
Operations
Station code	ACT
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12	1.140 million
– Interchange	0.299 million
2012/13	1.144 million
– Interchange	0.300 million
2013/14	1.179 million
– Interchange	0.310 million
2014/15	1.226 million
– Interchange	0.319 million
2015/16	1.256 million
– Interchange	0.318 million
History
4 June 1856	Station opens
1 February 1857	Name changed to Ascot and Sunninghill
10 July 1921	Name changed to Ascot
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ascot from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Ascot to Guildford Line
Waterloo to Reading Line to Reading & Waterloo Ascot 28 mi 79 ch 46.65 km Bagshot 32 mi 08 ch 51.66 km Camberley 35 mi 30 ch 56.93 km Frimley 37 mi 48 ch 60.51 km mileage change South Western Main Line to Weymouth & Waterloo Alton Line to Waterloo via SWML Ash Vale 32 mi 38 ch 52.26 km North Downs Line to Reading Basingstoke Canal Aldershot 35 mi 00 ch 56.33 km Alton Line mileage change Ash 49 mi 18 ch 79.22 km mileage change Wanborough 34 mi 29 ch 55.3 km mileage change Portsmouth Direct Line to Woking & SWML New Guildford Line to Surbiton & SWML Guildford 30 mi 27 ch 48.82 km North Downs Line to Reigate Portsmouth Direct Line to Portsmouth
Mileages from London Waterloo via various routes

Ascot railway station is a railway station in the town of Ascot in Berkshire, England. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by South West Trains. It is at the junction of the Waterloo to Reading line with the Ascot to Guildford line.

The station has three tracks and four platform faces. The London-bound track is a single track with platform faces on either side, both of which are called Platform 1. Until some time prior to 2008, both faces could be used to board London-bound trains, but now only the doors on the ticket office side of the train open, possibly due to safety worries relating to the third rail being on the other side or the ability of staff to monitor both sides of departing trains. Platform 2 serves the Reading-bound line, and Platform 3 serves the 2 line for trains starting and terminating their journeys at Ascot. Where trains are running from London through to Guildford, or vice versa, they use Platform 2. All lines are bi-directional.

History

The Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction Railway opened the station when it reached Ascot on 4 June 1856. On 9 July the line was extended to Wokingham. On 18 March 1878^[1] Ascot became a junction when the line towards Ash Vale was opened. Later the London and South Western Railway took over the SWWJR. In the Grouping of 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway, which electrified both lines using a third rail system on 1 January 1939. Under nationalisation in 1948 Ascot station became part of the Southern Region of British Railways.

The L&SWR opened Ascot Race Course Platform or Ascot West in 1922 to serve Ascot Racecourse. BR closed it in 1965.^[1]

Ascot had four signal boxes until the 1960s - "A" and "B" boxes controlled the main station, West box controlled the racecourse station and "Drake & Mount's Siding" the carriage sidings east of the station.^[2][3][4] The line through the station is now under the control of the panel box at Feltham.

When BR sectorised itself in the 1980s, the station was made part of Network SouthEast.

In 1982 a fire severely damaged the station buildings on the "up" (London-bound) side.^[5]

Services

Ascot is served by trains between London Waterloo and Reading with a basic service every 30 minutes Monday to Sunday (there are more frequent trains in the morning and evening peaks – around 4 per hour). Trains to 2 via Aldershot operate every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 60 minutes on Sundays. Most of these trains start or terminate at Ascot, but there are through trains from London Waterloo to Aldershot during Monday to Friday peak periods.^[6]

During Royal Ascot week, train services from London Waterloo to Reading through Ascot are significantly increased, with trains running every 15 mins in either direction.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Sunningdale		South West Trains Waterloo to Reading Line		Martins Heron
Terminus		South West Trains Ascot to Guildford Line		Bagshot

Notes

References

• Body, G (1984). PSL Field Guides – Railways of the Southern Region. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 35–36. ISBN 0-85059-664-5. 
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. 
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687. 
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ascot railway station.

• Train times and station information for Ascot railway station from National Rail
• Ascot railway station in the 1863 edition of Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain & Ireland
• Station on navigable Ordnance Survey map

Coordinates: 51°24′22″N 0°40′34″W / 51.406°N 0.676°W / 51.406; -0.676