History
The station was opened on 1 March 1863. It was partially closed on 3 April 1916, and completely on 19 May 1926. The former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway platforms reopened on 20 September 1926. The former South Eastern & Chatham platforms closed in 1916 have since been demolished.
Wandsworth Road is the terminus of an unusual 'Parliamentary' service running Mondays-Fridays from Olympia. It arrives at Wandsworth Road at 10:14, and departs for Olympia at 16:12. This service came about because of the withdrawal of the Cross-Country Birmingham-Brighton rail link. As the Department for Transport had not followed proper procedure, it was necessary to run a train on the Latchmere Curve, used solely by Birmingham-Brighton trains. To fulfil the legal niceties, the DfT instituted the Olympia-Wandsworth Road link, hence it is called a 'Parliamentary service'. This was featured in a BBC news item.
Read more about this topic: Wandsworth Road Railway Station
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“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
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