Stokes Bay line
The Stokes Bay line was a former 1.5-mile (2.4 km) railway in south Hampshire, England between a junction on the Fareham–Gosport line on the western edge of Gosport to Stokes Bay and its former pier for a steamer ferry to the Isle of Wight via one intermediate station named Gosport Road and Alverstoke. Stokes Bay Railway and Pier Company built the branch.
History
After two failed proposals in 1846 and 1854 Parliament finally authorised the line on 14 August 1855. Opened on 6 April 1863 the line saw limited traffic until an east curve was constructed in 1865 allowing direct access from Fareham rather than reversing from Gosport. Access was indirect for twelve years after which direct services from London were begun when the line was sold by its proponent company and operator Stokes Bay Railway and Pier Company to the London and South Western Railway in 1875.[1]
The steamer service was suspended at the start of the First World War. The line remained open until 1 November 1915 immediately after The Derby Scheme and two months before conscription proper. The line did not reopen – Stokes Bay to the intermediate station was sold to H.M. Admiralty in 1922. The remaining northern section remained in use for wagon storage until 1930 when abandoned and the track was then removed.
The route today
As at 2011 the site of the station at Gosport Road is occupied by the BT telephone exchange building. Most of the route south to Stokes Bay is now a public footpath. There is no trace of the station or pier at Stokes Bay.
The station was in Cleveland road, but the bridge, or Burys arch as it was known, was where the Telephone exchange is.