West of England Main Line - History

History

When all routes had been incorporated into the London and South Western Railway, this section of the network consisted of the various sections and stations listed below.

• Basingstoke to Salisbury
  • Basingstoke to Andover opened 3 July 1854
  • Andover to Salisbury opened 1 May 1857

• Intermediate branches were built to serve the following places between Basingstoke and Salisbury.
  • Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed all traffic 30 May 1936
  • Two branches, from Hurstbourne and Andover to Romsey and onto Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via Longparish opened 1 June 1885; closed all traffic 6 July 1931.
  • At Andover was the junction with the Midland and South Western Junction Railway to Cheltenham
  • The Bulford Camp branch
  • Salisbury to Romsey, with a branch from this line to Bournemouth
  • In Salisbury, the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Westbury and Bristol had its own terminus: the L&SWR continued the route southeastwards towards Southampton. This route today is the Wessex Main Line route.

• Between Salisbury and Exeter on the main line; the sections were opened as follows:
  • Salisbury — Yeovil opened 2 May 1859
  • Yeovil — Exeter opened 19 July 1860

• Intermediate branches were built to serve the following places between Salisbury and Exeter.
  • branch to Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR
  • branch to Chard joint station with the GWR
  • branch to Lyme Regis from Axminster
  • branch to Seaton from Seaton Junction (closed)
  • branch to Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to Exmouth)
  • branch to Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near Exeter

The line was significantly downgraded by being singled for long sections west of Salisbury by British Rail. This restricts the number of trains that can serve stations on this section of the line, passing loops have been added to alleviate this problem.