Ascot railway station (Berkshire)

The Staines, Wokingham and Woking Railway opened the station when it reached Ascot on 4 June 1856. On 9 July, the line was extended to Wokingham. On 18 March 1878^[1] Ascot became a junction when the line towards Ash Vale was opened. Later the London and South Western Railway took over the SWWJR. In the Grouping of 1923, the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway, which electrified both lines using a third rail system on 1 January 1939. Under nationalisation in 1948, Ascot station became part of the Southern Region of British Railways.

The L&SWR opened Ascot Race Course Platform or Ascot West in 1922 to serve Ascot Racecourse. British Rail closed it in 1965.^[1]

Ascot had four signal boxes until the 1960s: 'A' and 'B' boxes controlled the main station, West box controlled the racecourse station and "Drake & Mount's Siding" the carriage sidings east of the station.^[2][3][4] The line through the station is now under the control of the panel box at Feltham.

When British Rail sectorised itself in the 1980s, the station was made part of Network SouthEast.

In 1982, a fire severely damaged the station buildings on the up (London-bound) side.^[5]

The station has three active platforms and one disused platform:

• The London-bound track is a single tracked with platform faces on either side, both of which are called platform 1. Until some time prior to 2008, both faces could be used to board London-bound trains, but now only the doors on the ticket office side of the train open with the other side now being fenced off.
• Platform 2 serves the Reading-bound line
• Platform 3 serves the Guildford line for trains starting and terminating their journeys at Ascot
• There is a disused and overgrown bay platform next to platform 1 that was used for terminating trains from Reading that were laid on due to extra demand on race days. It was seldom used and was mothballed sometime in the early 2000s. The third rail and signalling remains intact.

Where trains are running from London through to Guildford or vice versa, they use platform 2. All lines are bi-directional.

All services at Ascot are operated by South Western Railway.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[6]

• 2 tph to London Waterloo via Richmond
• 2 tph to Reading
• 2 tph to Aldershot via Camberley

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours. In addition, during the Royal Ascot week, the services through the station are significantly increased.

On Sundays, the services to and from Aldershot are reduced to hourly and are extended to and from Guildford.

More information Preceding station, National Rail ...

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Sunningdale		South Western Railway Waterloo to Reading Line		Martins Heron
Terminus		South Western Railway Ascot–Ash Vale line		Bagshot

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