Yeovil Junction railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Yeovil Junction
code = YVJ


manager = South West Trains
locale = Yeovil
borough = South Somerset
usage0405 = 0.174
usage0506 = 0.192
platforms = 2
start = 19 July 1860
latitude = 50.9247
longitude = -2.6132

Yeovil Junction Railway Station serves the town of Yeovil, Somerset, England. The station is on the West of England Main Line 198 km (122¾ miles) south west of London Waterloo towards Exeter. Yeovil Junction is one of two stations serving Yeovil, neither of which are close to the centre of the town (unlike Yeovil Town station which closed in 1967).

It is located in the village of Stoford just outside the town. There are bus routes (South West Coaches Route 68/74 Mon-Sat or First 980 Sunday) that connect the station to Yeovil Town Centre and the nearby village of Barwick. The station actually straddles the border between Somerset and Dorset.

As its name suggests, the station was formerly a junction, with the line that served the now defunct station of Yeovil Town. There is still a junction of tracks at this point, enabling trains to be switched onto the Heart of Wessex Line from Castle Cary to Weymouth (which also has a station at Yeovil Pen Mill). However, this routing is now only used as an emergency diversion, typically when the direct route from Exeter to Castle Cary is obstructed by engineering works or flooding in the Exe valley.

Yeovil Junction is also the base of the Yeovil Railway Centre. The station used to have four active platforms, but as only two are now used (island platform) the other island is used by Yeovil Railway Centre to run their steam engine ("Pectin") down a short stretch of track, along with a selection of small diesel shunters (Ruston - named "Yeo") and also diesel loco 50050 ("Fearless") which is currently under restoration at the site. The station also has the only mainline accessible turntable in the South West Region so is used as a turning, watering and coaling point for many main line steam services running to Weymouth & Exeter etc.

The station now has a buffet called "Peppers" which opened on Tuesday 23rd October 2007.

ervice

There is generally an hourly service eastwards to Salisbury and London Waterloo, and hourly or two hourly service westwards to Exeter depending upon the time of day. Network Rail propose to reinstate a convert|3|mi|km section of double track in the Axminster-Chard area which will improve reliabliity and provide sufficient capacity for an hourly service to Exeter. [cite web| title = Wessex Lines| work = Route Plans 2008| publisher =Network Rail
url =http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/StrategicBusinessPlan/RoutePlans/2008/Route%204%20-%20Wessex%20Routes.pdf| format = PDF| accessdate =2008-06-26 ]

Some of the services through Yeovil continue beyond Exeter St Davids, after reversing, and go to Paignton, whilst others go through to Plymouth.

It is usually served by Class 159 DMU units in either single three car formation, or twinned as a six car set. Occasionally SWT's Class 158 DMUs also venture down this far.

The Class 170s that SWT had until recently also used to run down to Yeovil Junction occasionally, but they have all now moved up to First Trans Pennine Express, except 170392 which has gone to Southern. These 170s have been replaced with 8 refurbed 159/1xx three car units, and also there are going eventually to be a total of 11 refurbed 158 two car units.

Due to the influx of additional units at Salisbury depot, sometimes SWT will stable up to three 159 units in the sidings at Yeovil next to the unused platforms 3 & 4, especially over weekends.

Most evenings around 20:00 a 159 unit after terminating at Yeovil, will return to Salisbury depot via the junction as an ECS move, heading down to Yeovil Pen Mill, running through Castle Cary up to Westbury, where it reverses down the Warminster line to Salisbury.

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References