Bookham railway station
Bookham railway station is in the village of Great Bookham in Surrey, England. It also serves the adjacent village of Little Bookham. It is 20 miles 45 chains (33.1 km) down the line from London Waterloo.
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Great Bookham, District of Mole Valley England |
| Grid reference | TQ127556 |
| Managed by | South Western Railway |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Station code | BKA |
| Classification | DfT category E |
| History | |
| Opened | 1885 |
| Passengers | |
| 2018/19 | 0.322 million |
| 2019/20 | 0.291 million |
| 2020/21 | 45,452 |
| 2021/22 | 0.134 million |
| 2022/23 | 0.168 million |
| Notes | |
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | |
The station is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all train services.
History edit
Bookham railway station was opened on 2 February 1885; the line at the time was owned by the London and South Western Railway.[1][2]
Initially the London and South Western Railway wanted to build the line into the centre of Great Bookham village itself, but as often happened in those early days of rail expansion from London, the key landowners (and villagers) were strongly opposed to that idea and forced the company to adopt a much more northerly route, resulting in the station being built nearly one mile (1.6 km) from the village high street in open country.
It effectively remained in an open-field setting until the later 1950s/early 1960s when there was a massive expansion of the village, with new estates built to fill the space between the high street and station, leaving only National Trust-owned land as a "green corridor" along parts of Church Road.
The station buildings remain largely unchanged to this day, including the footbridge and platform canopies, however, the station master's house has been sold off as a private dwelling.
Immediately to the west of the station the original goods siding was removed in the 1960s and the associated goods shed (used as a coal depot by local businessman Howard Weale at that time) was finally demolished in the 1990s having lived on for a time as a builder's yard (Tredan) and then offices.
There are now scant landmarks to identify it as the original siding and goods yard. The siding area was for a period home to a blacksmith, but that land was sold for housing development, and where the shed once stood is now a purpose-built office block.
Services edit
All services at Bookham are operated by South Western Railway using Class 455 EMUs.[3]
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[4]
- 1 tph to London Waterloo via Epsom
- 1 tph to Guildford
Additional services run during the peak hours, increasing the service to 2 tph in each direction.
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leatherhead | South Western Railway | Effingham Junction | ||
References edit
- ^ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
- ^ 'Parishes: Great Bookham', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 326–35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42976. Date accessed: 12 August 2007.
- ^ "SWR withdraws '456s' following service cuts". Rail. No. 949. 26 January 2022. pp. 10–11.
- ^ Table 152 National Rail timetable, December 2021
External links edit
- Train times and station information for Bookham railway station from National Rail