Holton Heath railway station

Holton Heath railway station serves the area of Holton Heath in Wareham St Martin, Dorset, England. It is 118 miles 61 chains (191.1 km) down the line from London Waterloo. It was built to serve the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath during the First World War. It did not open to the public until 1924.

Holton Heath
General information
Location	Wareham St Martin, Dorset Council England
Grid reference	SY945901
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	HOL
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
3 April 1916	opened for Admiralty staff use
14 July 1924	opened to public
Passengers
2019/20	30,270
2020/21	11,164
2021/22	23,432
2022/23	27,498
2023/24	31,700
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Holton Heath has been unstaffed since 1964, and the signal box removed on 3 November 1969.

On 20 April 1989 a fatal accident occurred just beyond the siding on the London side of the station. A light locomotive, which had just completed shunting duties at the Winfrith nuclear facility, collided with the rear of a freight train. The driver of the light locomotive, Clive Brooker, died in the accident.^[1]

Description

The platforms are able to accommodate trains of up to five coaches. The station is one of the few remaining on the line not to be equipped with a self-service ticket machine, only a Permit to Travel machine, located on platform 1.

Services

The station is served hourly by London to Weymouth semi-fast trains during the day. This replaced the now-defunct hourly Wareham to Brockenhurst service in 2008. There are no services in the evening (after 20.00) or on Sundays.^[2]

Until 1967, trains through the station were normally steam hauled. Between 1967 and 1988, passenger services were normally provided by Class 33/1 diesel locomotives with Class 438 coaching stock (also known as 4-TC units). The line was electrified in 1988, using the standard British Rail Southern Region direct current third rail at 750 volts. Class 442 electric multiple units were initially used following electrification, until being displaced by new Class 444 electric multiple units in 2007.