Southall railway station

Infobox London station
name = Southall



manager = First Great Western
zone = 4
locale = Southall
borough = London Borough of Ealing
start = 1839
platforms = 4
railexits0405 = 0.865
railexits0506 = 0.859
railexits0607 = 1.558
railcode=STL

Southall railway station is a station in Southall, London, located in Zone 4.

The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from London Paddington to Reading, Oxford and Newbury, and by Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow Airport. The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, now known as the Great Western Main Line.

The station is one of the few in England in which the signs stating the station's name are in two languages, in this case English and Punjabi (Wallsend, on the Tyne and Wear Metro, has bilingual signage in English and Latin). Recently some informative station displays have also started to feature notices in Punjabi.

History

Southall station was opened in 1839. It was on the main Great Western Railway line to Slough and the west. In 1859, a branch line to Brentford Docks was opened for carrying goods. Passenger services started running on this branch line in 1860, and continued until 1942, when the service was withdrawn.

The line alongside the un-numbered platform at the southern edge of Southall station is where these services used to run, now only used as a relief. The tracks veer off in a south-easterly direction under the Grand Junction Canal at Windmill Bridge/Hanwell Viaduct (Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous "three bridges") and then through the wilderness of Osterley. It is still used for London waste and an aggregates depot, the line being cut by the Great West Road and other modern developments. There are still remains in Brentford of the former line.

The Southall rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 19 September 1997, on the Great Western Main Line at Southall, west London. Six people were killed and over 150 were injured.

A third of all rail suicides in England and Wales take place between Slough and London (Paddington), some of them at Southall station. [ [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23413278-details/'Abused'+Asian+women+behind+soaring+toll+of+railway+suicides/article.do 'Abused' Asian women behind soaring toll of railway suicides| News | This is London ] ]

Future

Southall is a planned station on the proposed Crossrail route which is expected to be presented to Parliament in 2008. In contrast to nearby Ealing Broadway station, the new service is unlikely to involve any major rebuilding of the station.

References

* Baker, T.F.T., Cockburn, J.S. and Pugh, R.B. (Eds) (1971) " [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22400 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

See also

* Southall Railway Centrendasha heritage railway centre, based in part of the former Southall locomotive depot (visible from the station: to the south of the main line, looking towards Paddington). It is home to the "GWR Preservation Group".

External links

Geolinks-UK-buildingscale|51.506|-0.3783

Gallery

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Future Development

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Disused Railways

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