Ascot railway station serves the town of Ascot in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England. It is down the line from . The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by South Western Railway. It is at the junction of the

Waterloo to Reading line Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

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 -bound line, and Platform 3 serves the 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 . On 18 March 1878 Ascot became a junction when the line towards was opened. Later the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

took over the SWWJR. In the Grouping of 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway, which

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

both lines using a

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

system on 1 January 1939. Under nationalisation in 1948 Ascot station became part of the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the sout ...

. The L&SWR opened Ascot Race Course Platform or Ascot West in 1922 to serve

Ascot Racecourse Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...

. BR closed it in 1965. Ascot had four

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

es 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. The line through the station is now under the control of the panel box at . When BR sectorised itself in the 1980s, the station was made part of

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

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

Services

Ascot is served by trains between and 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

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

operate every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 60 minutes on Sundays (to

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

). 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.GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 149 (Network Rail) During

Royal Ascot Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...

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

Notes

References

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External links

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Station on navigable Ordnance Survey map
{{coord, 51.406, N, 0.676, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Berkshire DfT Category C2 stations Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations served by South Western Railway Sunninghill and Ascot