Station Approach

There are of course whole books written about Hampshire's railway network. We'll skip over much of it to focus only on parts which affect the borough of Fareham, but even doing that involves telling a long story.

A convenient location

In 1840, the London and Southampton Railway company opened what is today the mainline between London and Southampton. Their railway was huge success, and with the railway industry becoming increasingly competitive, the owners were keen to expand. They proposed serving the busy port at Portsmouth, by building a short extension from Eastleigh. There appears to be no detailed route for this line, but logically it would have stopped at Fareham - but it would probably have passed on the north side. A look at a map suggests crossing the Uplands area (which at the time would have been mostly farmland) would be the most direct route, but perhaps the earthworks required may have been a problem. In a time before any major roads or local landmarks, this short-lived "alternative history" eould have changed the town we know considerably.

In the event, Portsmouth objected to its city being an afterthought on the existing busy Southampton route, so it didn't happen.

A secondary angle

The Fareham Tunnel being extended to accommodate the motorway (1974, tap to enlarge)

Still keen to hold a monopoly on the South Coast, the London and Southampton Railway renamed itself London and South Western Railway and in 1841 opened a route to Gosport instead. The ruler-straight line was built from Eastleigh (at the time a very insignificant town near a railway), passing Fareham to the west. The site of Fareham railway station would have been quite a distance from the urban area, but new development quickly filled the gap.

The new railway offered ferry connections to Portsmouth and to the Isle of Wight via Stokes Bay and Queen Victoria's favourite route via Royal Clarence Yard.

To the north of Fareham, the steep hill that the streets climb was avoided using a long tunnel, named Fareham Tunnel. The clay in the land caused the tunnel to collapse both during and after construction. This caused it to be split into two tunnels, named 1 and 2. The tunnels were reinforced, which made it difficult for two trains to be built.

With the line from Wickham to Alton about to open, an alternative to the narrow tunnel was built in 1904. It was known as the Deviation Line and crossed the hill with a cutting and a steep climb. This allowed the tunnel to be repaired and reduced to a more comfortable single track. The single track tunnel now led straight to the Wickham line, while the two new tracks led to Botley, though a crossover was installed after problems with freight trains climbing the steep hill of the Deviation Line.

As is a common theme on the railways, in the 20th century competition from road travel caused demand to decline. The Deviation Line exprienced its own land slip in 1962. The construction of the M27 in 1974 caused it to be permanently closed. Its route can still be clearly seen on aerial photos, and the majority of it can be followed as a trail.

The same construction caused Fareham Tunnel 2 to be extended. The land slips continue to be a threat, and the lack of clearance that means only one track is available is a major problem.

During the railway's heyday, many extensions were proposed and built, but perhaps the most interesting is the Meon Valley Line. Opened in 1903 (so justifying the Deviation Line), this railway cut the corner between Wickham and Alton and in doing so created a new route from London to Fareham and the Isle of Wight. The line was well-built to high engineering standards, and with grand station buildings despite the majority serving insignificant places. Enthusiasts don't seem to agree on why this route was seen as so desirable, but it was closed due to very low usage in 1955.

With smaller lines opening and closing quite quickly during the 19th and 20th century, other stations to have been built locally include Gosport, Fort Brockhurst, Lee-on-Solent, Knowle Asylum Halt/Knowle Platform, Wickham, Droxford and ownwards to Alton and London, Botley, Bishops Waltham, Bishopstoke/Eastleigh, Swanwick, Bursledon, Netley (and onwards to Southampton), Portchester, Paulsgrove, Cosham, Havant, Langstone, Hayling Island, East Southsea, Portsmouth Town and Portsmouth Naval Base. Many of the more rural stations did more with the movement of strawberries than it did passengers: Swanwick was one of the busiest in the country because of it. Some of the spurs and small village stations were very short-lived.

At its peak, Fareham would have had four public platforms, with the numbering having changed several times. Today's platforms 2 and 3 are the original platforms for travel towards London or Gosport. New lines were then built either side, creating a new western platform for travel from Gosport to London, and an eastern bay that terminated where the car park is today. That eastern bay became platform 1 (as with most stations, this was the end nearest the main entrance), with the public platforms extending to platform 4 on the west side.

In addition, on the far west side were cattle pens (for transfer to the market) and coal hoppers, while on the east side were goods sheds and engineering works. Amey Roadstone (Hanson) were based in the sidings, while the rest of the eastern sidings became the car park. The last of the goods sheds was demolished in 1990, while the west side became industrial units, with the barrow crossing from the island platform to the units removed around the same time.

The station footbridge first appears on the 1909 map, with the barrow crossing over the down mainline continuing to be the step-free option until it was closed in the early 2000s. The newer footbridge, with lift access, opened in 2012. Until the 1970s there was a café and lounge outside the station entrance.

The bay platform 2 still exists as a quirk of history, despite it not adding much to the strategic network, as it faces away from the main commuter flow. It used to have one daily evening service from London. After the timetables were cut back in 2020, it is only used during disruption, to keep trains out the way when they have been ordered to wait or turn around, especially when a line is closed and a backlog is building up. It's also used to turn around test trains, which is handy with Eastleigh yard being just up the line. There is a vague plan that it will be turned back into a through platform sometime in th 2030s; some 70 years after the buffers were put down.

Important Connections

Gosport being the nearest station to Portsmouth was never going to be satisfactory, and when Portsmouth started receiving direct trains from Brighton, it looked even worse.

To address this, in 1848 the London & South Western Railway opened a link between Fareham and Cosham (for Portsmouth). This involved the construction of the famous arches along the waterfront and by Wallington (Quay Viaduct and Wallington Viaduct), which would come to define Fareham, as well as the opening of the sharp bend that is now the only route south out of Fareham. This was based on a failed project to link Fareham to Guildford. It's strange to think that, had this route been built from the start, Fareham station could have been built much closer to the town centre, instead of the present situations where trains pass the town before stopping there, but that's another alternative history that is impossible to imagine.

What did happen was that a seecond link opened in 1889, taking a straight route between Fareham and the existing local railway at Netley, which opened up access to Southampton. The two new junctions were managed by two signal boxes: Fareham West to the south of the bridge, and Fareham East to the north.

From 1923, Fareham and its surroundings were operated by the Southern Railway, and from 1948 it moved to British Railways, who became British Rail in 1965.

It is well established that the line to Gosport closed to passenger services in 1953, with goods traffic to Bedenham ceasing in 1991. In truth, the Gosport line was only significant because of its use by the military, and because of its access to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight before Portsmouth's rail link opened. By 1934, it had been reduced to a single line and the decline was arguably well under way.

After the station bridge was replaced, the Gosport line was now only joined to what's now platform 1. This is one of many reasons why providing a new service to Gosport was never going to be practical, even though it would have had a lot of local support. When the line closed, the join was removed almost immediately. With this and the line to Alton closed, almost all trains north out of Fareham then went to either Eastleigh or Reading.

In the 1970s, British Rail experimented with 'Railbuses', which were in effect buses which had been cheaply converted to run on rails. This would lead to the creation of the notorious 'Pacer' train. One of these experiments used a local Provincial bus, and had been intended to bring the Gosport railway back into public use.

Fareham was operated by Network SouthEast from 1986, with occasional appearances from Regional Railways (later 'Alphaline'). Network SouthEast soon painted the station red, and became engaged in a high-profile investment scheme. This included reversing the platform numbers, allowing them to get rid of the vacant 'platform 1', but only by moving it to the 'wrong' side of the station, where it is today.

The lines around Fareham went electric on 9 May 1990, the same day that Hedge End station opened. This is quite late considering that the main line to Portsmouth had been electric since 1937, and Eastligh had it from 1967. Hampshire County Council pushed for Fareham to join the network, arguing that it would reduce road traffic and improve journey times all along the improved route to London. They promoted the new service under the name "Solent Link".

Arrangements were made to ensure the completion of the project would be celebrated by the first scheduled electric train, which would be a unit already named 'County of Hampshire'. The appropiately-named unit was chosen despite it being known to have mechanical issues, which caused it to run late on the day. The launch allowed Fareham to receive regular services to and from London once again.

Fareham railway station has a plaque on platform 3 marking the completion of the Solent Link project, which was attended by Cecil Parkinson MP, the then-Secretary of State for Transport. The plaque is cherished by Network SouthEast plans as a surviving example of its logo still in situ.

With privatisation becoming fashionable again, Fareham station was operated by South West Trains (on behalf of Railtrack) from 1996. Services were also provided by Connex South Central and South Wales & West Railway, who would experience a multitude of name changes, giving us services from Wales & West, Wessex Trains, First Great Western Alphaline, Great Western Railway, Southern and the occasional lost CrossCountry, before South West Trains itself would lose the franchise in 2017 and be rebranded to South Western Railway. Even in the diesel era, locomotive hauled trains were still running on some services as recently as 2003, not to mention the freight and the railtours which still pass through.

Station Approach

Fareham station is located roughly where the downhill line leaves ground level and starts crossing an embankment, and of course the long brick viaducts. For this reason it has a lengthy, flat driveway, leading to the once-fine station building.

It is hard not to mention Prague Junction. This managed to go from the Railway Tavern, to Railway Hotel, which was replaced in the 1950s. It went on to be a clothing factory, Crown Bingo and then to a seedy nightclub (also Coyote Station; Cockerills; 'Cafe Prague at the Junction'), and has now been demolished and turned into an unofficial station car park.

The whole station area is included under a housing review which could see it redeveloped to make more space for residences.


Knowle Halt

Nothing to do with Fareham station itself, but worth mentioning while we're talking about railways as it is (unless I've missed something) the only closed railway station within Fareham's boundaries.

Knowle Asylum Halt opened in 1907 to serve the county Lunatic Asylum in Knowle, deliberately placed far from civilisation. It closed in 1964 despite the Union attempting to keep it open.

The station had been renamed Knowle Platform and Knowle Halt, and was a short platform served only by the train coming from Wickham towards Fareham, and again in the other direction. Towards the end of its life, the station was served during visiting hours only. The Lunatic Asylum itself became more inoffensivly known as Knowle Hospital, prompting the station name to change.

The single platform is overgrown and not very suitable for re-using. While there is talk about opening a new station in this area, it is likely to be closer to Welborne/Welbourne and not at the original Knowle Halt site.

In any case, the talk about building a new station is just that - talk - it's an afterthought to make Welborne/Welbourne sound less car dependent. Opening a new station will take decades, as the people of Marchwood know well, and it's hard to imagine a proposal to open a new station will have the backing from politicians (who have generally refused to invest properly in infrastructure in recent years) for long enough to make it to fruition.

Getting back to the history, and on one final note: in 1865 a railway was authorised from Fareham to Hill Head, but it was never built.