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Wokingham railway station

Wokingham railway station serves the market town of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It is 62 miles 8 chains (62.10 mi; 99.9 km) down the line from London Charing Cross via Redhill. It is at the junction of the Waterloo–Reading line with the North Downs Line.

South Western Railway manages the station and provides services along with Great Western Railway.

History

The line from Reading to Redhill was built by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway (RG&RR), and was opened in stages. The first sections, from Reading to Farnborough North, which included a station at Wokingham, also from Dorking West to Redhill, were opened on 4 July 1849. Other sections followed, with the last section, from Guildford (Surrey) to Shalford, on 20 October 1849. From its beginning the RG&RR was worked by the South Eastern Railway (SER), which bought the RG&RR in 1852.

The Staines, Wokingham & Woking Junction Railway (SW&WJR) opened a line between Staines and Wokingham (Staines Junction) on 9 July 1856. The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) worked the SW&WJR and was authorised to run over the SER to Reading. This gave Wokingham a direct route to London Waterloo.

In 1933 the Southern Railway opened the current signal box. It controls part of the North Downs Line, part of the Waterloo route, and the level crossing. On 1 January 1939 the SR extended its Waterloo – Virginia Water electric service to Wokingham and Reading.

In 1973 British Railways replaced Wokingham's station building with one built with CLASP prefabricated concrete sections. In 1987 BR slightly extended the platforms to accommodate eight-car Waterloo trains. Platform 2 ("down") has recently undergone a further extension to accommodate longer trains and the addition of a signal at the London end. This is for reversing trains in times of disruption and during the Reading station upgrade.

In 1976 the busy level crossing adjacent to the station was modernised with lifting barriers.

Footbridge

At the southern end of the station there is a footbridge over the railway made from old sections of rail. The footbridge is over 130 years old, and was built after two deaths at the station's level crossing in 1886. It is now Grade II listed and is believed to be the only one of its type left in the UK. In 2017, various defects were found in the bridge's structure and Network Rail started restoration work in 2021 after initially having a planning application rejected.

Services

Services at Wokingham are operated by South Western Railway and Great Western Railway.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:

2 tph to London Waterloo via Staines
2 tph to Gatwick Airport via Guildford
4 tph to Reading (2 of these run non-stop and 2 call at all stations)

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours. The service to and from Gatwick Airport is reduced to hourly during the late evenings.

Redevelopment 2013

In 2011, it was announced that Wokingham station would be redeveloped from spring 2012 to spring 2013 at a cost of £6 million. The initial plan involved a new station building further along the platform, nearer to Reading than the existing building and creating a new spur road linking Wellington Road to the Reading Road. An artist's impression of the new station building was released to the news media in July 2011. Enabling work for the link road was started on 11 February 2013. In August 2013, the new footbridge was opened to the public and, in October the same year, the new station building was opened, with the old 1973 CLASP building being demolished to make way for the new station sign and clock tower. However, following the development, South West Trains chose a new café chain to serve in the new building in place of that which had served in the old building, despite local opposition.

Automatic ticket gates were installed at the station in early 2019.