Bournemouth railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Bournemouth
code = BMH


manager = South West Trains
locale = Bournemouth
borough = Bournemouth
usage0405 = 2.199
usage0506 = 2.121
usage0607 = 2.310
platforms = 4
years = 14 March 1870
events = Opened (Bournemouth)
years1 = 20 July 1885
events1 = Resited on opposite side of road bridge and renamed (Bournemouth East)
years2 = 1 May 1899
events2 = Renamed (Bournemouth Central)
years3 = 10 July 1967
events3 = Renamed (Bournemouth)

Bournemouth railway station, once known as Bournemouth Central, is the main railway station serving the town of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. It is located on the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo to Weymouth.

History

The station was designed by William Jacob, chief engineer of the London and South Western Railway, and opened on 20 July 1885 as "Bournemouth East" replacing the original station of the same name which was located on the other side of Holdenhurst Road [ [http://www.semgonline.com/location/bomo2.html Bournemouth Central ] ] . The station was located some distance away from the town centre on the insistence of town authorities of the time. It was renamed "Bournemouth Central" on 1 May 1899 and became "Bournemouth" on 10 July 1967. By 1967 third rail electrification had reached Bournemouth and continued beyond to Branksome and Bournemouth Depot but no further. From the end of steam most trains were formed of 4REP EMU's coupled up with one or more unpowered 4TC units. The 4TC units would be uncoupled at Bournemouth and attached to a Class 33/1 diesel locomotive for the onward journey to Weymouth. This continued until the elctrification of the line from Branksome to Weymouth and the introduction of Wessex Electric units in 1988. The end of steam also saw to removal of the station's centre tracks which ran between the up and down lines serving platforms 2 and 3 respectively and the demolition of the locomotive sheds located to the west; the station car park is now located on this site.

The station roof was extensively refurbished in 2000 by Railtrack after many years of disrepair and being surrounded by scaffolding to protect people from falling debris.

Layout

The station has four platforms:
*Platform 1 - east facing bay platform capable of accommodating trains of up to 4 coaches. Currently (2007) there are no scheduled services from this platformcite book | last = Mortimer | first = Simon | title = Baywatch (4^th edition) | publisher = Kentrail Enthusiasts Group | year = 2007]
*Platform 2 - for through services to the east towards Southampton & London.
*Platforms 3 and 4 - for terminating services from London and through services towards Poole and Weymouth. Platform 4 is rarely used by trains in passenger service.Platforms 3 and 4 are continuous, and both can accommodate full-length trains. This means Bournemouth has one of the longest platforms in the country. Other stations with this arrangement include Gloucester and Cambridge.

Services

Rail

The station is primarily served by South West Trains, who operate fast and semi-fast trains from Waterloo to Weymouth, and stopping services from London Waterloo to Poole. In addition, CrossCountry operate services from Bournemouth to Manchester and Scotland via York.

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Connex South Central used to operate a London Victoria-Bournemouth service, but this was truncated at Southampton and is now operated by Southern. The service was one of the few regular services to use platform 1.

One of Britain's longest distance rail service starts at Bournemouth, the 0730 Bournemouth - Aberdeen, arriving in Aberdeen at 19:00, a total time of 11:30, run by CrossCountry.

Bus

Bournemouth railway station also serves as a hub for local bus services. On the down side of the station is Bournemouth Travel Interchange which is served by Wilts & Dorset and Transdev Yellow Buses, both companies operate frequent services to the town centre. It is also a stop on National Express routes which serve the town.

References

External links