Southall railway station

Southall Crossrail National Rail
Punjabi: ਸਾਊਥਾਲ
Southall
Location of Southall in Greater London
Location Southall
Local authority London Borough of Ealing
Managed by TfL Rail[1]
Station code STL
DfT category D
Number of platforms 5
Fare zone 4
National Rail annual entry and exit
2012–13 Increase 2.222 million[2]
2013–14 Increase 2.306 million[2]
2014–15 Increase 2.422 million[2]
2015–16 Increase 2.791 million[2]
2016–17 Decrease 2.684 million[2]
Key dates
1839 Opened
Other information
Lists of stations
External links
WGS84 51°30′22″N 0°22′42″W / 51.506°N 0.3783°W / 51.506; -0.3783Coordinates: 51°30′22″N 0°22′42″W / 51.506°N 0.3783°W / 51.506; -0.3783
London transport portal
UK Railways portal

Southall is a railway station on the Great Western main line in Southall, London, England. It is in Travelcard Zone 4 and passenger services are provided by Great Western Railway from London Paddington and by TfL Rail to Heathrow Airport. It is 9 miles 6 chains (14.6 km) down the line from Paddington and is situated between Hanwell to the east and Hayes & Harlington to the west.

The station is managed by TfL Rail in preparation for Crossrail. In December 2018 the TfL Rail service will be re-branded as the Elizabeth line and in December 2019 the Elizabeth line service will open to Reading and Heathrow Airport.

History

Up freight passing Southall Station in 1961
Goods train coming off the Brentford Dock branch in 1961

The Great Western Railway opened Southall railway station on 1 May 1839, nearly one year after it opened its first railway line on 4 June 1838, between London Paddington and Maidenhead Riverside (the latter now known as Taplow).[3] The Brentford Branch Line to Brentford Dock was opened for freight in 1859;[4] a passenger service ran on the branch from 1860 until 1942, using the unnumbered platform at the south of the station (the line serving this platform is now only used as a relief line). From 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885 (when the service was discontinued as uneconomic) the District Railway ran trains between Mansion House and Windsor which called at the station.[5][6] The goods platforms opened as part of the original station; they were closed and dismantled in 1967.[7]

Southall station has bilingual station signage, owing to the large Punjabi community in the local area. Station signs on the platforms bear "Southall" and also "ਸਾਊਥਹਾਲ" in Gurmukhī, a script commonly used for the Punjabi language. In 2007, following issues raised by other ethnic groups in the area, First Great Western announced it would review the signage.[8] The bilingual signs were kept, and they are still displayed at the station.[9]It is one of the relatively few stations in England to have bilingual signage, others being Wallsend (Latin), Hereford (Welsh), and St Pancras International, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International (all French).

Layout and facilities

Southall station
Track Layout

↑ 1-4: Reading
↑ Relief: Southall Down Yard

Relief
1
2
3
4
 
 South Road
1
2
3
4
Q
B
A
1
2
3
4

↓ 1-4: Paddington
↓ A: Southall East Sidings
↓ B: Brentford Branch Line
↓ Q: Dismantled track to
 Sugar Puffs factory

Southall railway station has five platforms, one of which is unnumbered and used only for freight and special events. Access to all platforms is only by stairs. In normal circumstances, platforms 1 and 2, on the fast lines, and the unnumbered platform are not used by passengers; platforms 3 and 4 are used by all trains serving the station. The station building, above the fast lines, has a ticket office and a newsagent's shop. A footbridge gives access to platforms 3 and 4, while gates prevents access to the other three, under normal circumstances.[10]

Oyster "pay as you go" has been available since October 2008 for journeys to or from Southall.[11] Although Southall is a busy station, automatic ticket barriers have not replaced manual ticket checks and standalone card readers, making the station vulnerable to fare evasion.

Services

The station has a frequent service to and from Paddington, provided by both TfL Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) stopping trains to Reading and Didcot Parkway. On Sundays, the Hayes & Harlington shuttle doesn't run, the TfL Rail trains run to and from Heathrow Terminal 4 and alternate GWR services run to/from Didcot Parkway and Reading.

Future

On 16 March 2010, the Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel recommended that Crossrail should give consideration to the proposed regeneration developments in the area, including the Southall Gas Works development and the landscaping of unused work sites.[12]

In May 2011, Network Rail announced that it would make various alterations to prepare the station for Crossrail:[13]

  • New station building with a new larger enclosed ticket hall with level access from South Road
  • Step-free access
  • Platforms 1 – 4 extended
  • Improved passenger facilities including increased lighting and information and security systems

Connections

London Buses routes 105, 120, 195, 482, E5 and H32 serve the station.

Accidents and incidents

On 19 September 1997, a Great Western Trains passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington failed to stop at a red signal and collided with a freight train, killing 7 people and injuring 139 others.[14] The train driver, Larry Harrison, was charged with manslaughter, but the case against him was dropped. Great Western Trains was fined £1.5 million for the crash. Following this accident and the more serious Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash some miles east, First Great Western requires all its trains to have their ATP switched on at all times. If the equipment is faulty, the train is stored out of use.

In 2007, analysis by First Great Western after several deaths at Southall station found that a third of the suicides on English and Welsh railways occurred on the line between Slough and Paddington.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Station facilities for Southall
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  3. ↑ "Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society". 11. Bishopsgate Institute. 1953: 113.
  4. ↑ MacDermot, E T (1927). History of the Great Western Railway. 1 (1833-1863) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
  5. ↑ Rose, Douglas (December 2007) [1980]. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (8th ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-85414-315-0.
  6. ↑ Day, John R.; Reed, John (2008) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (10th ed.). Harrow: Capital Transport. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-85414-316-7.
  7. ↑ Brown, Joe (2009). London Railway Atlas (2nd ed.). Ian Allan Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7110-3397-9.
  8. ↑ "Language row over station signs". British Broadcasting Corporation. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "Southall Station". The Trainline. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  10. ↑ "Southall Station Plan". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "Oyster PAYG on National Rail" (PDF). National Rail Enquiries. 2008-10-20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009.
  12. ↑ Unwin, Kevin, "Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel 2009/2010" (PDF), Draft Final Report, London Borough of Ealing, pp. 36–40, retrieved 23 June 2010
  13. ↑ "Crossrail Station Design Contract Awarded". Crossrail. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  14. ↑ Wolmar, Christian (20 September 1997). "Southall, 1.15pm, Friday 19 September 1997. It's happened again". The Independent. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  15. ↑ Owen, Glen; Oliver Wadeson (22 September 2007). "'Abused' Asian women behind soaring toll of railway suicides". The Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers. Retrieved 23 June 2010.

  • Baker, T.F.T., Cockburn, J.S. and Pugh, R.B. (Eds) (1971) "Norwood, including Southall: Introduction", A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner, Victoria County History online, p. 40-43, accessed 20 October 2007
  • Mitchell V. and Smith, K. (2000) "2. Brentford Branch, Southall", In: Branch Lines of West London, Midhurst : Middleton Press, ISBN 1-901706-50-8, p. 16-23
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Hayes & Harlington   Great Western Railway
London - Reading		   Ealing Broadway
Crossrail
Hayes & Harlington
towards Hayes & Harlington
or
Heathrow Terminal 4		   TfL Rail
Paddington - Hayes & Harlington/Heathrow		   Hanwell or West Ealing
towards London Paddington
  Future development  
Preceding station   Crossrail   Following station
Crossrail
Elizabeth line
towards Abbey Wood
towards Reading
Crossrail
Elizabeth line
towards Abbey Wood
  Historical services  
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
Line and station open
towards Windsor
District line
Line and station open
towards Mansion House
Disused railways
Terminus   Great Western Railway
Brentford Branch Line		   Trumpers Crossing Halte
Line and station closed

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