Woking is a major stop on the South Western Main Line and Portsmouth Direct Line in Surrey.
SWR 450 093 and 037 prepare to depart for London Waterloo
Information
Type:
National Rail (South Western Main Line)
Station code:
WOK
Opened:
1838
Platforms:
6
The station was opened by the London & Southampton Railway as Woking Common in 1838 as it was over two kilometres from the centre of the town [1] as it was at the time. The station's name was changed to Woking in 1843. The Guildford Junction Railway arrived at Woking in 1845. By now the station was part of the London & South Western Railway.
The station was rebuilt in the mid-1930s for the Southern Railway electrification of the line to Portsmouth Harbour[2]. The new layout had a central island with two side platforms to serve four through lines and Up and Down bays. The station layout is largely the same now though one of the bays, platform 6, is only lightly used. The station has a fine Art Deco styled signal box and retains it's good yard though these days used mostly for Network Rail trains.
Woking is a busy interchange with up to fourteen trains an hour to London Waterloo and four per hour to Portsmouth. There are also regular services to numerous destinations including Southampton, Weymouth, Alton, Basingstoke and Farnborough and on the West of England Line to Exeter. The station is managed by South Western Railway.
SWT 444 022 waits at Woking
SWT 450 544 at Woking
SWR 707 023 on one of the bay platforms
Woking signalbox
Colas 70 810 powers out of the yard
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Woking to Portsmouth (Middleton Press, 1985) Fig. 1 [2] David Brown, Southern Electric Vol. 2 (Capital Transport, 2010) p. 24
