Woking railway station

Woking
Woking railway station's distinctive signal box
Location	Woking, Borough of Woking England
Coordinates	51°19′05″N 0°33′25″W / 51.318°N 0.557°W / 51.318; -0.557Coordinates: 51°19′05″N 0°33′25″W / 51.318°N 0.557°W / 51.318; -0.557
Grid reference	TQ006587
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	6
Other information
Station code	WOK
Classification	DfT category B
History
Original company	London and Southampton Railway
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
21 May 1838 (1838-05-21)	Station opened as Woking Common
c. 1843	Renamed Woking
Passengers
2015/16	7.989 million
2016/17	7.998 million
2017/18	7.642 million
Interchange	1.381 million
2018/19	7.729 million
Interchange	1.424 million
2019/20	7.352 million
Interchange	1.232 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Woking railway station is a major stop in Woking, England, on the South West Main Line used by many commuters. It is 24 miles 27 chains (39.2 km) down the line from London Waterloo. The station is managed by South Western Railway, who operate all trains serving it. Many South Western Railway services call at Woking, including:

• the Alton Line calling at stations to Alton
• the Portsmouth Direct Line to Guildford and stations to Portsmouth
• the South West Main Line to Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth
• the West of England Main Line to Andover, Salisbury and Exeter
• The station is a terminus of the Waterloo to Woking stopping service

Fast trains from Woking take approximately 26 minutes to reach London Waterloo (some stop at Clapham Junction). Trains from the Alton Line take roughly 35 minutes, and the stopping service 50 minutes, to Waterloo.

An hourly National Express bus service runs between the terminus beside the station and Heathrow Airport, a journey of about 50 minutes.

The station's southern exterior is an art deco rounded-edge building in a mixture of concrete and stock brick courses. It features less uniformity and glass than the town centre side

History[]

Class 33 008 passes Woking station with a down train

The London and Southampton Railway (L&SR) was authorised on 25 July 1834.^[1] It was built and opened in stages, and the first section, that between the London terminus at Nine Elms and Woking Common was opened on 21 May 1838.^[2] Woking Common became a through station with the opening of the next section of the line, as far as Winchfield, on 24 September that year.^[3] On 4 June 1839, the L&SR was renamed the London and South Western Railway (LSWR),^[4] and Woking Common station assumed its current name of Woking around 1843.^[5]

Woking became a junction with the opening of the Guildford Junction Railway (GJR) on 5 May 1845;^[6] it had been authorised less than a year earlier, on 10 May 1844.^[7] The GJR was always operated by the LSWR, and was absorbed by that company on 4 August 1845.^[8]

The signal box, built by the Southern Railway, is a Grade II listed building.^[9]

Platforms[]

hide v t Woking station
Legend
Note: cafés on south and central platforms   Townside ticket hall 1 South West Main Line stopping service to/from London Main Line westbound 5 Platform 6 (little-used) Downside ticket hall etc.

Woking Station has six platforms, two of which act as termini with buffers.

• Platform 1 – Semi-fast London-bound services. Adjoins the main station house and town centre to the north.
• Platform 2 – Fast London-bound services. Part of a single island with 3 and 4 below.
• Platform 3 – Stopping service to/from London, terminus. At the far east end of platforms 2 to 4.
• Platform 4 – Trains to Exeter St Davids, Portsmouth Harbour (via Basingstoke), Salisbury and Weymouth.
• Platform 5 – Portsmouth Direct Line services, Alton line and Basingstoke stopping services.
• Platform 6 – a west-facing bay platform, terminus, the first train of the day to Portsmouth Harbour via Eastleigh starts from this platform, and it is often used to stable diesel locomotives in the event of a train failure.^{[citation needed]}

Services[]

South Western Railway operates northbound suburban and mainline services to London Waterloo. Southbound services operates to Alton, Weymouth, Basingstoke, Haslemere, Exeter St David's, Portsmouth Harbour and Salisbury. Limited destinations served at peak times include: Bristol Temple Meads and Yeovil Pen Mill.

A Class 159 DMU calls at the station

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Clapham Junction or London Waterloo		South Western Railway Portsmouth Direct Line		Guildford
		South Western Railway Portsmouth Direct Line (Stopping service)		Worplesdon
		South Western Railway South West Main Line		Farnborough (Main) or Winchester
		South Western Railway West of England Main Line		Basingstoke
West Byfleet		South Western Railway Alton Line		Brookwood
		South Western Railway Waterloo to Woking (Stopping service)		Terminus
Weybridge		South Western Railway Waterloo to Basingstoke (Stopping service)		Brookwood
	Historical railways
Staines		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Farnborough (Main)

In popular culture[]

Seated Man by Sean Henry on Platform 1

• The station was destroyed in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.^[10]
• Woking Station can be seen at the beginning of the 1995 music video for 'You Do Something To Me' by Paul Weller.^[11]
• In the television adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story "The Commuter" for the series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, railway worker Ed Jacobson (played by Timothy Spall) works at Woking station, and discovers a non-existent destination on the Alton line.^[12]
• Sean Henry's sculpture, Seated Man, waits patiently for his train on Platform 1.

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. CN 8983.
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
• Wells, H.G. (1975) [1898]. The War of the Worlds. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-24332-2.
• Williams, R.A. (1968). The London & South Western Railway, volume 1: The Formative Years. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4188-X.

External links[]

• Woking Borough Council, 'Woking's railway'

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woking railway station.

• Train times and station information for Woking railway station from National Rail