The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway was opened in 1901, by the London and South Western Railway. It was the first English railway authorised under Light Railway legislation. It ran through unpromising, lightly populated terrain, and was probably built only to exclude competitors from building a line in the area. It had steep gradients and a line speed limit of 20 mph, later raised to 25 mph.

It never attracted much business and the hoped-for through traffic never materialised. When the War Office demanded recovered track for laying in France, during the First World War, the LSWR closed the line and lifted the track, in 1917.

After the war, local pressure mounted to reinstate the railway; this was resisted by the Southern Railway, which had taken over from the LSWR. The SR had no wish to spend considerable sums to reopen a railway that had lost money and had no positive prospects. A House of Lords Committee effectively forced the SR to resume operation, which it did in 1924. Losses mounted and business declined further, and the line was closed to passengers in 1932, with limited goods services continuing until 1936.

Before closure a film company staged a train crash with the co-operation of the LSWR, and the event appeared in a feature film.

The London and Southampton Railway completed its line in 1839, and reached Gosport the following year. Gosport was its station for Portsmouth, which with Southampton was important because of its maritime connection. The London and Southampton Railway changed its name to the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), and became the dominant railway operator in the area south of Basingstoke.^{[citation needed]}

In 1848 a small chink in that dominance was created when the Great Western Railway, a great rival to the LSWR, opened a line from Reading to Basingstoke.

In 1865 the Mid-Hants Railway opened its line between Alton and Winchester. It had been promoted independently, hoping to form a new through route between London and Southampton. This did not endear it to the LSWR, for whom their main line route to Southampton was a prime part of its business, but the LSWR worked the line, and later absorbed it. It never rose to commercial success. In 1885 another incursion into the LSWR area of influence was made, when the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway opened its north – south line. It was sponsored by the Great Western Railway, but it failed to generate enough investment to pay to reach Southampton, and its Winchester extremity forced it to rely on the LSWR.

Many of the lines on the district seemed to be on a north-east to south-west trajectory, leading from London to points on the Hampshire or Dorset coast. From time to time, lines running directly from north to south were put forward. The topography in that direction was difficult, consisting of high ground between deep broad valleys. At the same time the chalk geology led to poor agricultural land and a low population density.