Brockenhurst railway station serves the village of

Brockenhurst Brockenhurst is the largest village by population within the New Forest in Hampshire, England. The nearest city is Southampton some to the North East, while Bournemouth is also nearby, South West. Surrounding towns and villages include Beaul ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is located on the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...

from

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

to Weymouth. It is also the junction of the Lymington Branch Line with the main line. It is down the line from Waterloo. It is managed and served by South Western Railway and it is also served by CrossCountry trains. The station was winner of the 2009 National Rail Award for best medium-sized station, with the judges stating they "were impressed by the standard of customer service, station presentation, initiative and innovation they observed, all of which ensure that the station provides a smooth, efficient and pleasant departure and arrival point for the travelling customer". The station was also winner of a National Cycling Award, for a system which informs passengers of where cycle spaces are on approaching trains, allowing them to speed boarding, and partnerships with local bike-hire firms.

History

Brockenhurst station was opened on 1 June 1847 as part of the

Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary authority in 1845 and ...

(nicknamed the Castleman's Corkscrew) with services running to

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in one direction and Dorchester via Ringwood and

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole ...

the other. The following year, the railway was amalgamated with 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 ...

. On 12 July 1858 the Lymington Branch Line opened, beginning shuttle services between the station and Lymington, turning the station into a

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

and leading to its name being changed between 1876 and 1888 to Brockenhurst Junction to emphasise this. On 5 March 1888 the direct line from Brockenhurst via Sway to

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and bypassing the longer 'Corkscrew', opened to traffic. This massively increased the number of trains passing through the station for both routes and enhancing its status as an interchange, especially after the downgrading of the 'corkscrew' in 1893 to that of a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

. Brockenhurst station, along with the L&SWR was taken over by Southern Railway in 1923 and under their ownership, the station was extended in 1936 to include two new platforms. Services over the old Southampton and Dorchester line via Ringwood fell victim to the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

, ceasing in May 1964. The track through the station was electrified in 1967 and the station saw minor changes as part of

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 ...

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 ...

region. In 2014 the station received £4.6 million of government grants as part of the Access for All initiative to replace the footbridge at Brockenhurst with a new bridge complete with lift shafts. Step-free access to platforms 1 and 2 was previously by a rotating turntable bridge across the tracks while step-free access to platforms 3 and 4 was across the track bed itself.

Station layout

The station consists of four platforms, arranged in two

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

s, with a ticket office housed in the main building nearest Platform 1 on the side closest to the village. The platforms, ticket office and car park are all connected by footbridge, with the ticket office at one end and the car park and bicycle hire point at the other end of the walkway. *''Platform 1'' - Up loop platform used by stopping services from

where it is overtaken by the express services from Weymouth and CrossCountry services from

on platform 2. This platform is occasionally used by Lymington services, which is normally the first service in the morning. A weekday evening service to Portsmouth and Southsea via Southampton Central used to run from this platform but, since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, this has since ceased *''Platform 2'' - for through services towards Southampton, Winchester and London Waterloo. *''Platform 3'' - for through services towards Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. *''Platform 4'' - Down loop platform for Lymington services, this can also be used by other down services, but this is rare. A signal box and level crossing is located at the northern end of the station.

Services

Rail

The station is primarily served by South Western Railway, In addition, CrossCountry operate some services from Bournemouth to

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

via and

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

. Most CrossCountry services by-pass the station without stopping. As of February 2022, the services calling at this station include: * Monday - Friday: ** 1 train per hour on Weymouth - Waterloo semi-fast service *** During peak hours, some of the Weymouth service run fast non-stop through this station, with a portion split at Southampton Central serving this stop ** 1 train per hour on Poole - Waterloo fast service ** 1 train per hour on Bournemouth - Winchester stopping service *** During peak hours, stopping services run through to Waterloo, with some joining to / splitting from a portion with Weymouth - Waterloo fast service. ** 2 trains per hour on Brockenhurst - Lymington Pier service ** 1-2 trains per day on Bournemouth - Manchester CrossCountry service * Saturday: ** 2 trains per hour on Weymouth - Waterloo services, 1 fast and 1 semi-fast ** 1 train per hour on Poole - Winchester stopping service ** 2 trains per hour on Brockenhurst - Lymington Pier service ** 1-2 trains per day on Bournemouth - Manchester CrossCountry service * Sunday: ** 1 train per hour on Weymouth - Waterloo fast service ** 1 train per hour on Poole - Waterloo stopping service ** 2 trains per hour on Brockenhurst - Lymington Pier service ** 2 trains per day on Bournemouth - Manchester CrossCountry service

Bus

Local bus routes serve the bus stop located outside the ticket hall. There is a year-round Bluestar 6 service to

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

in the south, Lyndhurst to the north and onward connections to Totton and

. In the summer time, this is supplemented by the seasonal

New Forest Tour The New Forest Tour is an open-top bus service in the New Forest, running three circular routes around various towns, attractions and villages in the protected forest. It is run by morebus and Bluestar in partnership with Hampshire County Counci ...

green and blue routes to Lymington, Beaulieu,

Hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...

and Lyndhurst and Burley,

New Milton New Milton is a market town in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymington and Christchurch, 6 miles (10 km) away. History Ne ...

Barton on Sea Barton on Sea (often hyphenated as Barton-on-Sea) is a cliff-top village in Hampshire, England with close connections, physical, governmental and commercial, to the inland town, New Milton which is its civil parish to the north. As a settlemen ...

Milford on Sea Milford on Sea, often hyphenated, is a large village or small town and a civil parish on the Hampshire coast. The parish had a population of 4,660 at the 2011 census and is centred about south of Lymington. Tourism and businesses for quite pr ...

and Lymington.

Gallery of historic pictures

References

External links

Brockenhurst station at South Western Railway

{{SWT Stations, Weymouth=y, Lymington =y, IL None=y Railway stations in Hampshire DfT Category C2 stations Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations served by CrossCountry Railway stations served by South Western Railway New Forest 1847 establishments in England