Gosport - Transport

Transport

Gosport is one of the largest towns in Britain without an operational railway station. The Gosport Ferry provides quick access to Portsmouth Harbour railway station, terminus of the Portsmouth Direct Line to London. Due to heavy traffic (see below) this ferry is very well used: it can also be used by motorcycles. Ironically, Gosport received its railway before Portsmouth, but it closed to passengers in 1953.

In 1841 a railway opened between the London and Southampton Railway at Eastleigh via Fareham to Gosport, where a terminus was built to an Italianate design of Sir William Tite. Gosport railway station was intended to serve Portsmouth across the water, but was sited at Gosport away from the harbour because the railway company was not permitted to breach either the Hilsea Lines, defences at the northern end of Portsea Island protecting Portsmouth, or the Gosport Lines protecting depots such as Royal Clarence Yard.

An extension to Royal Clarence Yard was opened in 1846, and branch lines to Stokes Bay (open from 1863 to 1915), and to Lee-on-the-Solent (open to passengers 1894 to 1931). Due to declining traffic, the connection to Fareham was closed for passenger services in 1953 and to freight traffic in 1969, although trains to the armament depot in Frater ran until the late 1970s.

The trackbed of the former Gosport–Fareham railway is now a pedestrian walkway and cycle track. Tite's station building has been retained for its historical and architectural value and is currently being converted into a small number of residential properties and offices. The main gate in Spring Garden Lane has been opened up for vehicle access. A development of six terraced homes is being built at the north western end of the site linking with George Street.

Being a peninsula town without a railway system Gosport relies heavily upon the major A32 road in and out of the town. In the 1970s there were plans to widen the road to accommodate expected increases in traffic flow but this did not take place. In the early 1990s a computerised system controlling traffic lights along the route was installed to improve the rate of flow of traffic but this failed to work and had to be switched off since it could not cope with the traffic volumes. Now, in the 21st century, the A32 is much the same as it was thirty years ago and the traffic using it has increased to such an extent that the journey time to the nearby M27, about 5 miles (8.0 km), can routinely take anything up to 45 minutes and sometimes longer at peak times.

The station site was linked with the South Hampshire Rapid Transit scheme, which would have made use of the former railway route. However, due to Government refusal to fund the scheme, it was formally abandoned in November 2006. During 2010, construction started on the same route to provide a rapid bus route between the Holbrook area of Gosport and the town of Fareham. When built, regular service buses between Gosport and Fareham will divert onto the new route avoiding lengthy queues on the A32 and speeding up commuting time between the towns.