Staines railway station

Staines
Staines
Location
Place	Staines-upon-Thames
Local authority	Borough of Spelthorne
Grid reference	TQ042714
Operations
Station code	SNS
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2007/08	2.630 million
2008/09	2.766 million
2009/10	2.717 million
2010/11	2.799 million
2011/12	2.898 million
History
Key dates	Opened 22 August 1848
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Staines from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

The station platforms looking east, and showing the new footbridge.

The station platforms looking west, and showing the old footbridge.

From the old footbridge, the junction of the Reading (left) and Windsor (right) lines can be seen.

Staines railway station is a railway station on the Waterloo to Reading line, and the junction station between that line and the Windsor line, in southern England to the west of London. The station serves the town of Staines-upon-Thames, in the county of Surrey. It is managed by the South West Trains train operating company, who also provide all services stopping at the station, which include services from London Waterloo to Reading, Windsor & Eton Riverside and Weybridge.

The station is now the only one serving the town of Staines, but historically it was one of three, with the others being Staines High Street, on the Windsor line, and Staines West, the terminus of a now-closed branch from West Drayton. To distinguish it from the others, the current station was previously known as Staines Central, Staines Junction and Staines Old. Although the town of Staines changed its name to Staines-upon-Thames in 2012, the railway station has not been renamed to match this.^[1][2]

History

The station was opened on 22 August 1848 by the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway, as part of its line from Richmond to Datchet. The line was further extended from Datchet to Windsor & Eton Riverside on 1 December 1849, by which time the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway had become part of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). The junction at Staines, together with the line to Wokingham was authorised in 1853 and built by the Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction Railway, opening as far as Ascot on 4 June 1856 and onwards to Wokingham on the 9 July 1856. From the outset, the line was leased to, and operated by, the LSWR, who purchased it outright in 1878. From Wokingham, LSWR trains continued to Reading Southern using running powers over the South Eastern Railway (SER).^[3][4][5][6]

In the grouping of railways in 1923, both the LSWR and SER became part of the Southern Railway. In 1930 the Windsor line was electrified on the third rail system at a nominal 660 volts DC. The line towards Reading was electrified as far as Virginia Water in 1937, and throughout by 1939.^[4]

The Southern Railway was nationalised along with the rest of the railway network in 1948 and incorporated into British Railways. Following the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s, the operation of Staines station and the trains serving it were transferred to the South West Trains train operating company, owned by the Stagecoach group, whilst ownership and management of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack and, subsequently, Network Rail.

A refurbishment of the station was completed in November 2008 with ticket barriers on both platforms, and a renovated ticket office with a SHERE ticket machine. Wheelchair access to both platforms was provided by the construction of a new footbridge, with lifts.

Operation

Layout

Staines railway station is located on a section of double-track railway, immediately to the east of the junction of the Windsor and Reading lines. It has two flanking platforms, with the main station entrance and buildings on the northern platform 1, and a secondary entrance and buildings on the southern platform 2.

The two platforms are linked by two footbridges, one at each end of the station. The older western bridge is accessed by staircase only, whilst the newer eastern bridge has both staircases and lifts.

Services

Staines railway station is served by South West Trains services from London Waterloo to Windsor, Reading and Weybridge. Off-peak, each of these services operates two trains per hour, combining to provide six trains per hour from Staines to Waterloo (four are limited stop via Richmond, the other two are all stations via Brentford). Some early morning & late night services start or terminate here and there are additional weekday peak period trains on the Reading line and to/from Aldershot.^[7]

On Sundays, there is an hourly stopping service on the line via Brentford - this runs to/from Woking rather than Weybridge. The Reading & Windsor lines still run half-hourly.

Trains to Waterloo stop at platform 1 and trains from Waterloo stop at platform 2.

Connections

Staines station is situated some 0.5 mi (0.80 km) to the east of Staines town centre, the two being linked by a walking route that first parallels the Windsor line to its north, before passing under that line near the site of the former Staines High Street station.

The 950 Thorpe Park Express bus link runs between the front of the station and the nearby Thorpe Park theme park. All other local bus services operate from the bus station in the town centre, necessitating a walk to change modes.

AirTrack proposal

As part of the Heathrow Airtrack scheme, which proposes the development of a direct rail service from Heathrow Airport through south-west London to Waterloo, BAA has proposed that the existing Heathrow Express service be extended from Heathrow Terminal 5 and run south to terminate at Staines. This would then provide a direct express rail service from Staines to Paddington via the airport.^[8]

The original proposals for the AirTrack link^[9] included a new station, to be called Staines High Street railway station, to be built between the existing Staines and Wraysbury railway stations near to the site of a former station of the same name. However the plans for this new station have been dropped from the revised proposals in the second public consultation, published on 20 October 2008.^[10]

It has since been announced that the scheme will not go ahead due to a lack of government funding.

References

1. Brown, Joe (2006). London Railway Atlas. ISBN 978-0-7110-3137-1. - pp.37
2. Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1988). Waterloo to Windsor. Middleton Press. p. 97. ISBN 0-906520-54-1.
3. The Times, Thursday 24 August 1848
4. "The Railways at Windsor". The Royal Windsor Web Site. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
5. Mitchell, Vic and Smith, Keith (1989) Branch lines around Ascot, 1st ed, Middleton Press, Midhurst
6. Maggs, Colin C. (1993) Branch Lines of Berkshire, 1st ed, Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud
7. Table 149 National Rail timetable, May 2016
8. "Improving public transport access to Heathrow Airport - Consultation brochure 2" (pdf). BAA Heathrow Airport. October 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
9. "Improving public transport access to Heathrow Airport, Consultation brochure 1" (pdf) (Press release). BAA Heathrow Airport. February 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
10. "Improving public transport access to Heathrow Airport - Consultation brochure 2" (pdf) (Press release). BAA Heathrow Airport. October 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2008.

External links

• Media related to Staines railway station at Wikimedia Commons

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

Coordinates: 51°25′55″N 0°30′11″W / 51.432°N 0.503°W