Alton
General information
Location	Alton,East Hampshire England
Grid reference	SU723397
Managed by	South Western Railway
Platforms	3 (2 National Rail, 1 Watercress Line)
Other information
Station code	AON
Classification	DfT category C2
Key dates
28 July 1852	Station opens
2 October 1865	Station moves to adjacent site
February 1973	National Rail services west of Alton curtailed
25 May 1985	Watercress Line begins heritage services west of Alton
Passengers
2020/21	0.133 million
2021/22	0.387 million
2022/23	0.496 million
2023/24	0.544 million
2024/25	0.591 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

v t e Basingstoke & Alton Light Railway
Legend
South West Main Line toWaterloo Basingstoke South West Main Line toWeymouth Thornycroft sidings Viables level crossing Cliddesden Bushywarren Lane crossing Bagmore Lane crossing Herriard Salter Hatch crossing (Spain Lane) Bentworth and Lasham level crossing Treloar's Hospital Platform (private) Treloar's Hospital siding Alton line toBrookwood Alton Butts Junction Watercress Line toAlresford Meon Valley Railway toFareham

Alton railway station serves the market town ofAlton, in the English county ofHampshire. The station is theterminus for two railway lines: theAlton Line, which runs toBrookwood and on toLondon Waterloo, and theMid Hants Watercress Railway which runs toAlresford. The latter once ran through toWinchester, but was closed to passengers in February 1973;^[1] it reopened as a heritage line in 1985. Two other routes, both now closed, also served the station: theMeon Valley line toFareham and theBasingstoke and Alton Light Railway.

Services operate along theAlton Line to Brookwood and join theSouth West Main Line towards London Waterloo. The line was single-tracked as far asFarnham byBritish Rail in the early 1980s.

The first station, opened by theLondon and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1852, was sited on what is now the station car park. It closed when the present station opened in 1865. The LSWR became part of theSouthern Railway during theGrouping of 1923. The line fromWoking to Alton was electrified in 1937 and the station passed on to theSouthern Region of British Railways onnationalisation in 1948.

Whensectorisation was introduced in 1986, the station was served byNetwork SouthEast until theprivatisation of British Rail in 1997.

Alton station is located in the local government district ofEast Hampshire.

The station is nowhere nearAlton Towers Resort, which is located in the rural village ofAlton in Staffordshire, about 185 miles away. Many people trying to reach the resort have mistakenly travelled to this station. Historically, there could have been grounds for confusion;Alton Towers railway station, which closed in 1965, was calledAlton before 1954.

Local residents, who have encountered many people trying to find Alton Towers, have put up posters at the station containing directions from the station to the resort by train, with a journey time of approximately 4 hours and 46 minutes.^[2]

There are three platforms in use.South Western Railway use platforms one and two, connected by a footbridge; platform three is used by theMid Hants Railway.

There is a ticket office which is open seven days a week, with a ticket machine beside the booking hall. There is a long line public address system providing automated announcements and digital information displays to offer train running details. A car park with 207 spaces is available for passengers.^[3]

The standard off-peak service provides two trains per hour to London Waterloo. On Sundays, there is an hourly service, increasing to half-hourly from approximately 13:30. Services are operated bySouth Western Railway.^[4]

Services are usually operated byClass 450Desiroelectric multiple units, althoughClass 444 andClass 458 EMUs are sometimes used.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Terminus		South Western Railway Alton Line		Bentley or Farnham
Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Medstead and Four Marks towardsAlresford		Watercress Line		Terminus
Disused railways
Terminus		London and South Western Railway Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway		Treloar's Hospital Platform Line and station closed
Farringdon Halt		British Rail Southern Region Meon Valley Railway		Terminus

• Body, G. (1984),PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Southern Region, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge.ISBN 0-85059-664-5
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995).The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.).Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd.ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7.OCLC 60251199.OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (2000).Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers.ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1.OCLC 228266687.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlton railway station.

• Map sources for Alton railway station

• Train times andstation information for Alton railway station fromNational Rail
• Station on navigable O.S. map

51°09′07″N0°58′04″W / 51.15200°N 0.96766°W /51.15200; -0.96766

• Railway stations in Hampshire
• DfT Category C2 stations
• Heritage railway stations in Hampshire
• Former London and South Western Railway stations
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852
• Railway stations served by South Western Railway
• Alton, Hampshire
• 1852 establishments in England

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