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Waterloo–Reading line
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Waterloo–Reading line
The Waterloo–Reading line is a National Rail electric railway line between London Waterloo and Reading. The line runs west through a series of South West London suburbs to Reading, in central Berkshire. Its passenger operation is by South Western Railway (SWR), which also manage its stations.
The Waterloo–Reading line is the core of a group of lines and branches heading generally westwards from Waterloo, providing predominantly passenger services into London. All of the branches and connecting lines have direct services into a dedicated group of platforms at Waterloo, so most of the services using the line do not run the whole length of the line. After leaving Waterloo, the line runs parallel to the South West Main Line before diverging at Clapham Junction and heading westwards. Within Greater London, the Hounslow Loop Line diverges at Barnes and reconnects again near Feltham, whilst the Kingston Loop Line diverges at Twickenham to join up with the South West Main Line at New Malden. At Staines, the original route carries onto Windsor, whilst the 1853 route to Reading diverges to run via Egham. At Virginia Water, the Chertsey Branch Line provides another connection to the South West Main Line whilst at Ascot, the Ascot–Guildford line heads southwards towards Aldershot and Farnham. At Wokingham, the line joins the west end of the North Downs Line leading into Reading, to terminate in platforms 4, 5 and 6. The line also sees some freight services and special charters, which use the connecting line at Reading to join the Great Western Main Line or the Chertsey Loop/Branch Line to connect to the South West Main Line.
Due to the large swathes of suburbs served along the line and the drop from four to two tracks west of Barnes, services between Reading and London Waterloo take significantly longer than services to London Paddington via the Great Western Main line. The line is predominantly used for commuter traffic into London with most of the traffic being generated by intermediate stations. To ease over-crowding, a roll-out is underway of 8-car trains being extended to 10 coaches and there have been calls to change the service patterns to provide some additional and faster services, cutting out some of the intermediate stops.
The London and Southampton Railway opened the first stretch of railway between Nine Elms and Woking Common on 12 May 1838, and renamed itself as the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) one month later. As the L&SWR continued extending its railway towards Southampton, the first branch was opened by the Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) to Richmond on 27 July 1846. This branch line started at what is now Clapham Junction, although the station itself did not open until 2 March 1863. The terminus at Nine Elms was replaced on 11 July 1848 with a new station at Waterloo, originally named Waterloo Bridge. The Richmond branch was extended further west by the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) opening as far as Datchet on 22 August 1848 and to Windsor on 1 December 1849. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were purchased by the L&SWR before their respective lines had been completed.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) opened its line from Wokingham to Reading on 15 October 1849 under the auspices of the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway (RG&RR), which was then taken over by the SER in 1852. This was part of the SER line from London to Reading via Guildford and terminated at Reading Southern railway station, which was adjacent to, but separate from the Great Western Railway station at Reading.
The line linking Staines with Wokingham was authorised in 1853 and built by the Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction Railway, opening from Staines to Ascot on 4 June 1856 and onwards to Wokingham on 9 July 1856. Initial services on the line were 6 trains a day between Waterloo and Reading (2 on Sundays), building up to 14 trains a day (7 on Sunday) by 1928. The line was operated by the L&SWR from the outset, who leased it from the owning company in 1858 for 50% of the gross profits, before purchasing it outright in 1878.
There were now three competing routes to Reading: the GWR from Paddington at 36 miles; the LSWR from Waterloo at 43.5 miles and the SER from Charing Cross at 69 miles. Despite the disparity, the GWR was not the obvious choice due to the relative position of Paddington station, west of the City of London. This allowed intense competition between the three companies until in 1858 a new agreement between the three companies was made to fix prices and share fares. The agreement led to a connecting spur between the SER and GWR railways in Reading being opened for goods traffic on 1 December 1858 and to passenger traffic on 17 January 1859. A better-placed link was opened on 17 December 1899, and the third link on 1 June 1941. The link is today used by special services such as luxury steam services.
A new station named Winnersh Triangle was opened on 12 May 1986 between Winnersh and Earley, followed 2 years later by the opening of Martins Heron on the 3 October 1988 between Bracknell and Ascot.
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Waterloo–Reading line
The Waterloo–Reading line is a National Rail electric railway line between London Waterloo and Reading. The line runs west through a series of South West London suburbs to Reading, in central Berkshire. Its passenger operation is by South Western Railway (SWR), which also manage its stations.
The Waterloo–Reading line is the core of a group of lines and branches heading generally westwards from Waterloo, providing predominantly passenger services into London. All of the branches and connecting lines have direct services into a dedicated group of platforms at Waterloo, so most of the services using the line do not run the whole length of the line. After leaving Waterloo, the line runs parallel to the South West Main Line before diverging at Clapham Junction and heading westwards. Within Greater London, the Hounslow Loop Line diverges at Barnes and reconnects again near Feltham, whilst the Kingston Loop Line diverges at Twickenham to join up with the South West Main Line at New Malden. At Staines, the original route carries onto Windsor, whilst the 1853 route to Reading diverges to run via Egham. At Virginia Water, the Chertsey Branch Line provides another connection to the South West Main Line whilst at Ascot, the Ascot–Guildford line heads southwards towards Aldershot and Farnham. At Wokingham, the line joins the west end of the North Downs Line leading into Reading, to terminate in platforms 4, 5 and 6. The line also sees some freight services and special charters, which use the connecting line at Reading to join the Great Western Main Line or the Chertsey Loop/Branch Line to connect to the South West Main Line.
Due to the large swathes of suburbs served along the line and the drop from four to two tracks west of Barnes, services between Reading and London Waterloo take significantly longer than services to London Paddington via the Great Western Main line. The line is predominantly used for commuter traffic into London with most of the traffic being generated by intermediate stations. To ease over-crowding, a roll-out is underway of 8-car trains being extended to 10 coaches and there have been calls to change the service patterns to provide some additional and faster services, cutting out some of the intermediate stops.
The London and Southampton Railway opened the first stretch of railway between Nine Elms and Woking Common on 12 May 1838, and renamed itself as the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) one month later. As the L&SWR continued extending its railway towards Southampton, the first branch was opened by the Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) to Richmond on 27 July 1846. This branch line started at what is now Clapham Junction, although the station itself did not open until 2 March 1863. The terminus at Nine Elms was replaced on 11 July 1848 with a new station at Waterloo, originally named Waterloo Bridge. The Richmond branch was extended further west by the Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) opening as far as Datchet on 22 August 1848 and to Windsor on 1 December 1849. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were purchased by the L&SWR before their respective lines had been completed.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) opened its line from Wokingham to Reading on 15 October 1849 under the auspices of the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway (RG&RR), which was then taken over by the SER in 1852. This was part of the SER line from London to Reading via Guildford and terminated at Reading Southern railway station, which was adjacent to, but separate from the Great Western Railway station at Reading.
The line linking Staines with Wokingham was authorised in 1853 and built by the Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction Railway, opening from Staines to Ascot on 4 June 1856 and onwards to Wokingham on 9 July 1856. Initial services on the line were 6 trains a day between Waterloo and Reading (2 on Sundays), building up to 14 trains a day (7 on Sunday) by 1928. The line was operated by the L&SWR from the outset, who leased it from the owning company in 1858 for 50% of the gross profits, before purchasing it outright in 1878.
There were now three competing routes to Reading: the GWR from Paddington at 36 miles; the LSWR from Waterloo at 43.5 miles and the SER from Charing Cross at 69 miles. Despite the disparity, the GWR was not the obvious choice due to the relative position of Paddington station, west of the City of London. This allowed intense competition between the three companies until in 1858 a new agreement between the three companies was made to fix prices and share fares. The agreement led to a connecting spur between the SER and GWR railways in Reading being opened for goods traffic on 1 December 1858 and to passenger traffic on 17 January 1859. A better-placed link was opened on 17 December 1899, and the third link on 1 June 1941. The link is today used by special services such as luxury steam services.
A new station named Winnersh Triangle was opened on 12 May 1986 between Winnersh and Earley, followed 2 years later by the opening of Martins Heron on the 3 October 1988 between Bracknell and Ascot.
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