Winnersh railway station, previously known as Sindlesham and Hurst Halt and then Winnersh Halt, is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

located in the centre of the village of

Winnersh Winnersh is a large suburban village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. The village is located around northwest of Wokingham town centre and around southeast of central Reading. It is roughly bounded by the ...

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 served by South Western Railway services between and . The station is from London Waterloo and from Reading, at the point where the B3030 road crosses the line on an overbridge. Winnersh railway station should not be confused with the much newer

Winnersh Triangle railway station Winnersh Triangle railway station is one of two railway stations in Winnersh, Berkshire, England. It is served by South Western Railway services between and . The station is on the west side of Winnersh, from London Waterloo and from R ...

, which is situated on the same line some in the Reading direction.

History

The

South Eastern and Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easter ...

opened the station on 1 January 1910 as Sindlesham and Hurst Halt. At the time the station was located in open countryside, and (as the name suggests) was intended to serve the nearby villages of

Sindlesham Sindlesham is an estate village in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It is located around southeast of Reading and around west of the town of Bracknell, and just south of the village of Winnersh, from which it is separated by the M ...

( to the south) and

Hurst Hurst may refer to: Places England * Hurst, Berkshire, a village * Hurst, North Yorkshire, a hamlet * Hurst, a settlement within the village of Martock, Somerset * Hurst, West Sussex, a hamlet * Hurst Spit, a shingle spit in Hampshire ** Hurs ...

( to the north). Following the opening of the station, the village of Winnersh developed around it and on 6 July 1930 the Southern Railway, which had taken over the line in the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

, renamed the station to Winnersh Halt. Finally

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways shortened this to Winnersh on 5 May 1969. In 1987 British Railways replaced the wooden station buildings on the platforms with new ones repositioned at the level of the road bridge that carries the B3030 over the line. In 2002

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

extended the London-bound platform to accommodate eight-car Reading-Waterloo trains, just before

South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT op ...

introduced Class 458 trains to the route. Until then, when the slam-door stock that they replaced was still in service, passengers wishing to leave the train at Winnersh were advised to move down the train in order to alight.

Facilities

The station has two side platforms, each of which has a separate ramped access down from the road overbridge carrying the B3030 over the line. The station building is situated at street level, alongside the entrance to the Reading bound platform. Access between the station building and London-bound platform, and between platforms, is via a walk on the street. The station building includes a ticket office, but it is currently staffed only on Monday to Saturday mornings. On Sundays the station is open but the booking office is closed. There is also a self-service ticket machine outside the station building. Access to the platforms is via ramps, which may be too steep for wheelchair usage.

Services

South Western Railway runs services between and every 30 minutes Monday to Sundays (extra trains on weekday peak times).GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Table 149

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

provides one train per day in each direction on the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading, on the Great Western Main Line, to Redhill and , along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route. ...

between and Reading.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{coord, 51.430, N, 0.877, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Berkshire DfT Category D stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1910 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway