Alton Line
| Alton Line |
| Principal stations (from north to south)
Brookwood |
The Alton Line is a railway line operated by South West Trains. Today Alton station is the terminus of a main line branch, although it was at one time the junction for three lines. The branch leaves the South Western Main Line at Pirbright Junction near Brookwood.
The towns and villages served by the line are listed below.
Freight trains operated by EWS and steam trains from the Watercress Line (see below) are often seen on this line.
History
- 28 July 1852 first railway to Alton, from Farnham
- 2 October 1865 Alton, Aldershot & Winchester Railway opened between those three places; Alton station moved to new site. The section of this line between Alton and Arlesford is now the Watercress heritage railway
- 2 May 1870 connection from Farnham to Pirbright Junction opened.
- 1 June 1901 Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened; closed 1917-1924; closed completely 1933
- 1 June 1903 Meon Valley line from Alton to Fareham opened; closed to passengers 7 Feb 1955
Services
Weekday non-peak services from Waterloo to Alton are two trains per hour, taking between 75-78 minutes for the journey. Although timetables show the line as "Suburban", for the purposes of South West Trains Passenger Charter discounts and Void Day refunds for season tickets, most journeys from this line fall into the Mainline group. All journeys from Alton, Bentley and Farnham are Mainline journeys. Journeys from Aldershot and Ash Vale to London Terminals and Zone R1256 Zones are Mainline. All other journeys from these two stations are suburban.
Users of the Alton Line can join a body called the Alton Line Users Association (ALUA), which "has a long history of defending the interests of the line".