Salisbury  | |||||
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| General information | |||||
| Location | Salisbury,Wiltshire England | ||||
| Coordinates | 51°04′14″N1°48′20″W / 51.0705°N 1.8055°W /51.0705; -1.8055 | ||||
| Grid reference | SU136301 | ||||
| Managed by | South Western Railway | ||||
| Platforms | 6 (4 in use) | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | SAL | ||||
| Classification | DfT category C1 | ||||
| History | |||||
| Original company | Salisbury and Yeovil Railway | ||||
| Pre-grouping | London and South Western Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 1859 | Opened | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2020/21 |  0.455 million | ||||
| Interchange | 41,127 | ||||
| 2021/22 |  1.289 million | ||||
| Interchange | 0.137 million | ||||
| 2022/23 | 1.622 million | ||||
| Interchange | 0.218 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 1.812 million | ||||
| Interchange | 0.231 million | ||||
| 2024/25 | 2.005 million | ||||
| Interchange | 0.248 million | ||||
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Salisbury railway station serves the cathedral city ofSalisbury, in Wiltshire, England. It lies 83 miles 43 chains (134.4 km) fromLondon Waterloo on theWest of England line toExeter St Davids; this is crossed by theWessex Main Line fromBristol Temple Meads toSouthampton Central. The station is operated and served bySouth Western Railway;Great Western Railway also operates some services.
Three railway station sites have been used in Salisbury, owned by theLondon and South Western Railway (LSWR) from 1847 and theGreat Western Railway (GWR) from 1856, as well as two further stations atWilton, 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west.
The LSWR opened theirMilford station on the east side of the city on 1 March 1847, with the opening of theirbranch line fromEastleigh to passenger traffic.[1] This was the city's only railway until 30 June 1856, when the GWR opened theSalisbury branch fromWestbury.[1] On 1 May 1857, the LSWR opened the extended main line fromLondon andAndover,[2] at first to the Milford station.
On 2 May 1859, the LSWR opened a station on the south side of the 1856 GWR station, west ofFisherton Street, to coincide with the opening of the first section of theSalisbury and Yeovil Railway.[1] At the same time, the terminus of the Andover line moved to the new station, having been brought across the city, partly through a tunnel. The building is largely of two stories and has a central main entrance; the architect was SirWilliam Tite, who was responsible for a number of LSWR stations.[3]
As the GWR and LSWR used differentgauges, through goods traffic had to be unloaded and transhipped in atransfer shed; a covered footbridge was opened in 1860 linking the two stations, to allow passengers to change trains. The LSWR station had a single long platform served by trains in both directions and a secondbay platform was provided at the London end.[4]
In the 1870s, the LSWR opened a second platform, east of Fisherton Street, for services towards London. It had an entrance from the street and was linked to the old platform by a subway; there was another bay platform for trains to the east.
The LSWR station was again enlarged between 1899 and 1902, and the 1870s platform east of Fisherton Street could then be closed.[5] Two new platforms serving three tracks were opened between the GWR platforms and the original LSWR one, reached by a subway from the LSWR's new station offices, which were built in red brick on the west side of their original building of 1859.[3]
In 2008, the group of buildings (1859 and 1902) was designated asGrade II listed.[3]
The GWR opened their7 ft (2,134 mm)broad gaugeSalisbury branch line fromWestbury on 30 June 1856.[1] The terminus was on the west side of Salisbury on the west side of Fisherton Street.Isambard Kingdom Brunel provided a station with a woodentrain shed to cover the tracks and a single-storey building of red brick with stone dressings to house booking offices and waiting rooms.[5]
The GWR converted their line to4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1874, and four years later a connecting line was laid to the neighbouring 1859 LSWR station, which allowed wagons to be shunted between the two stations.[4] In 1896, a through service betweenCardiff on the GWR andPortsmouth on the LSWR began operating over a junction line at Salisbury. The two companies' lines ran alongside each other from Salisbury as far as Wilton (where they finally diverged, although there was no connection between the lines there) until October 1973, when a new junction between the lines was put in at Wilton and the former GWR route closed.
On 12 September 1932, GWR's passenger trains were transferred to the LSWR station, and the two railways were in common ownership byBritish Railways from 1 January 1948. The train shed was demolished, but Brunel's passenger buildings were designated as Grade II listed in 1972[6] and are in use as offices by non-railway businesses.[5]
In June 2024, Wiltshire Council began a project to refurbish the station's forecourt, using money from the government'sFuture High Streets fund. The project was expected to take around 12 months and cost £5.8 million; SWR had already provided a new cycle hub at a cost of £750,000. The work included landscaping, lighting improvements and creation of a bus interchange, and most car parking would be relocated to a new facility on Fisherton Street.[7]
Until late 2009, services to Exeter would extend on a limited basis toPenzance,Plymouth andPaignton. These services were removed in favour of hourly Waterloo to Exeter services.[8] Until December 2021, a limited number of South Western Railway services operated to Bristol Temple Meads, with a train dividing here from a service to Exeter.
In 2016, a new service began running once on summer Saturdays between London Waterloo andWeymouth; however, since 2020, the Saturday Weymouth services ceased due to theCOVID-19 pandemic[9] and there are no plans to reinstate them.[citation needed]
The former Salisbury Milford station was used as a goods station until it was closed in 1967 and demolished in 1968.[10] Goods traffic was also handled ingoods sheds at the west end of the Fisherton station – north of the GWR station and south of the LSWR station – and also on the 460 yards (420 m) Market House branch from the east end of the LSWR station which opened in 1859.[1] A new LSWRmarshalling yard was opened on the site of the old platform east of Fisherton Street after it had closed in 1902, but the main LSWR goods depot was kept at the old Milford station until 1967. The former GWR station remained in use as a goods depot until 1991.
Anengine shed, water tower andturntable were erected on the Milford site from January 1847, as the line was then open for freight traffic.[10] A replacement engine shed was built by the LSWR at Fisherton Street in 1859. The GWR also built a small engine shed adjacent to their station in April 1858. This was demolished in 1899, to allow expansion of the LSWR station, and a replacement was built on the north side of the line. This was closed byBritish Railways in 1950.
A large new and well equipped engine shed was opened by the LSWR on 12 January 1901. This remained in use until theend of steam in southern England on 9 July 1967. The shed lay derelict for some years before being demolished.[10]
The sidings around the former GWR station were redeveloped in 1992 asSalisbury Traincare Depot, where South Western Railway maintains their fleet ofdiesel multiple units.
In the early morning of 1 July 1906, an overnight boat trainderailed in Salisbury station, killing 24 passengers and 4 railwaymen.[11][12]
On 31 October 2021, an SWR traincollided with a GWR train at Salisbury Tunnel Junction, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of the station.[13]
The approach road from the city is accessed from a junction on the south side of the railway bridge across Fisherton Street, which leads into a one-way car park with 287 spaces.[14] The large building on the right of the approach road is the old LSWR buildings of 1859, which now houses the Salisburysignal panel. Immediately next door is the red brick building of 1902, now the main entrance where the ticket office and buffet are located.[5]
The main platform adjacent to the entrance is platform 4, which is mainly used for trains towards Exeter and Cardiff, as is platform 3 opposite. This is one side of an island platform, the opposite side of which is platform 2 which is used by trains to London Waterloo andPortsmouth Harbour. Platform 5 is a bay platform at the west end which is no longer used by passenger trains. Terminal platform 6 is an eastwards extension of platform 4; it is used predominantly by London Waterloo trains terminating here and local services toSouthampton Central.
Beyond platform 2 is the disused platform 1. Behind this are the sidings of the Traincare Depot; at the east end of this is an old water tank and the brick offices which once served the GWR station.
Salisbury is served by twotrain operating companies:
In 2022, South Western Railway added aWelcome Host at the station; a staff member provides information to customers and sells tickets.[17]
Railway stations inWiltshire | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol to London Paddington | |||
| Taunton to London Paddington | |||
| Exeter to London Waterloo | |||
| Cardiff to Portsmouth | |||
| Bristol to Weymouth: Heart of Wessex Line | |||
| Swindon to Westbury | |||
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| Swindon & Cricklade Railway: |
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