Farnborough (Main) railway station

Farnborough (Main) railway station is a stop on the South West Main Line and serves the town of Farnborough, in Hampshire, England. The station is operated by South Western Railway, along with all trains serving it.

Farnborough (Main)
The station entrance
General information
Location	Farnborough, Borough of Rushmoor England
Grid reference	SU868560
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	2
Tracks	4
Other information
Station code	FNB
Classification	DfT category C2
History
Opened	24 September 1838; 186 years ago (1838-09-24)
Passengers
2019/20	2.760 million
Interchange	9,728
2020/21	0.567 million
Interchange	1,401
2021/22	1.514 million
Interchange	4,498
2022/23	1.940 million
Interchange	5,162
2023/24	2.064 million
Interchange	6,069
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

It is one of three stations in the town; the others, Farnborough North and North Camp, are both situated on the North Downs Line. The station is usually known as Farnborough (Main) in order to distinguish it, including by National Rail^[1] and South Western Railway,^[2] although it is often signposted simply as Farnborough.

The station is 33 miles 17 chains (53.5 km)^{[note 1]} from London Waterloo, between Brookwood and Fleet stations.

History

Farnborough railway station was opened in 1838 by the London and South Western Railway (then the London and Southampton Railway), on the line from London to Winchfield (then Shapley Heath).^[3] The next year, the line was extended to Basingstoke, then the next year it was connected to Southampton.^[3] Throughout its life, Farnborough has been a through station.

In 1849, South Eastern Railway built the North Downs Line and opened a station also known as Farnborough, but it was not renamed as its existing name, Farnborough North, until 1923. The main line station was often known as Farnborough (Main) and this has become its official name. It is referred to as simply Farnborough on platform and road signs, but National Rail and South Western Railway officially use the suffix,^[1][2] although not on timetables. It was sometimes advertised as Farnborough for Aldershot at an early stage.

As with Hook and Winchfield, there is a wide gap between the tracks. Originally, an island platform stood between them. When the railway was quadrupled, the existing up (London-bound) track became the down (Southampton-bound) fast. The former up platform, an island which had a loop line running behind it was demolished with the loop line becoming the up fast. The new up slow line and a new platform for 'up' services were built at this time (early 1900s).^{[citation needed][jargon]}

One source suggests that the station may have been used by Queen Victoria to get to Windsor Castle, though the main station she used for Windsor was Slough until Windsor got its own station.^[3]

A 2011 forecourt refurbishment added two lifts to the platforms plus a new transport interchange with taxi rank, three new bus stops and a large bicycle shelter. In 2012 the station booking hall was extensively modernised and enlarged. A double-level car park was built in 2014.

Accidents and incidents

• On 26 November 1947, a passenger train was in a rear-end collision with another, hauled by SR Lord Nelson Class 4-6-0 No. 860 Lord Hawke, due to a signalman's error. Two people were killed.^[4]
• On 5 April 2016, the "country" side waiting room was subjected to an arson attack.^[5]

Facilities

The station has three coffee shops, a waiting room on each platform, a ticket office, self-service ticket machines, smartcard travel facilities and bicycle parking facilities.^[1]

Services

South Western Railway operates all services at Farnborough (Main) station. The typical off-peak service per hour is:^[6]

• Two trains each way between Basingstoke and London Waterloo;
• One train each way between Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Brookwood		South Western Railway London-Basingstoke services		Fleet
Woking		South Western Railway London-Portsmouth via Winchester services		Basingstoke
Clapham Junction		South Western Railway London-Poole services		Fleet
	Historical railways
Woking		Anglia Railways London Crosslink		Basingstoke

51°17′49″N 0°45′22″W

Notes

1. Railways in the United Kingdom historically are measured in miles and chains. There are 80 chains to one mile.