FRATTON
(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 9.8.1986)
Fratton always seemed quite exotic to me as it was where diesels from the west met the electrics from the east. Of course the route westwards has now been electrified for many years but back in 1986 there were a succession of DMUs and, more interestingly, 33s on the Bristol and Cardiff route.
Fratton yard also normally had interesting stuff in, including engineering vehicles.
In 1986 everything was in rail blue with double arrow symbols everywhere. I haven't been back there now for probably eight or nine years. No doubt it's now a more colourful, but also duller, place!
More info (from Wikipedia)
Fratton railway station is a railway station in Portsmouth, located near Fratton Park, the stadium of association football (soccer) club Portsmouth F.C..
It is located on the Portsmouth Direct Line which runs between London (London Waterloo) and Portsmouth (Portsmouth Harbour).
Platforms and History
Normally, platforms 2 and 3 serve Portsmouth & Southsea and Portsmouth Harbour, with platform 1 serving all other destinations. Platforms 2 and 3 are also signalled to allow northbound passenger departures.
The railway line through Fratton was planned by the Brighton and Chichester Railway as part of the Chichester to Portsmouth Branch Railway, approved in 1845. The line was completed in 1847, the Brighton and Chichester railway merging with several other companies to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846, who went on to operate the line. Fratton was once the junction for the Southsea Railway which closed in 1914.
After the Motive power depot closed in the late 1950s, some former sidings were used during the withdrawal of the South West Trains greyhound fleet around 2003. The same sidings were then used in 2007[3] and in 2009 for freight trials, this involved DB Schenker Rail (UK) hauling small container trains to and from eastleigh. The Idea was abandoned in 2010 due to running costs.
Portsmouth Area Resignalling (PARS)
The Portsmouth Area Resignalling project was instigated in late 2006, aiming to improve the flexibility of the track layout in the Fratton area. Platform 1 became the Up Main, Platform 3 became the Down Main with Platform 2 as a bidirectional through platform (although the main function of platform 2 is down line trains). Prior to the project, trains could not reverse south to north at Fratton in service.
The work, scheduled by Network Rail to take place between 23 December 2006 and 4 February 2007, was subject to a massive overrun. The works were first extended six weeks into mid-March 2007 but in late February it became obvious that there were major problems with the new equipment being installed by the contractor Siemens AG.
Until 1 April 2007 there were only three trains per hour between Fratton and Portsmouth Harbour with the remaining services terminating at Fratton and passengers using a replacement bus service. After 2 April 2007 there were five trains per hour running between Fratton and Portsmouth - three South West Trains services, one Southern service and one Great Western Railway service with some services still terminating at Fratton with passengers forced to change to continue their journey. The "six-week project" was eventually completed in October 2007 - some ten months after it started.
New DDA compliant footbridge planned
A new footbridge is now operational, linking the island platform (platforms 2 and 3) with the Up Main platform (1). This has stairs and lifts to allow disabled users full access to all trains, with lifts designed for easy wheelchair use.
Motive power depots
The London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly built a motive power depot at Fratton in 1891, replacing an earlier one at Portsmouth Town station. It was of the double roundhouse type. It came under the ownership of Southern Railway (Great Britain) in 1923 and British Railways in 1948. This building was badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War but repaired in 1948. It closed 2 November 1959, but the building continued to be used for stabling locomotives for several years. They were demolished in 1969. Fratton Traction Maintenance Depot, operated by South West Trains now occupies part of the site.
Service pattern
- Monday to Saturday (off peak services)
- South West Trains
- 4tph to London Waterloo, of which three run via Guildford and one runs via Eastleigh and Basingstoke
- 3tph to Portsmouth Harbour
- 2tph to Portsmouth & Southsea
- 1tph to Southampton Central
- Southern
- 1tph to London Victoria via Horsham
- 1tph to Littlehampton
- 1tph to Brighton
- 2tph to Portsmouth Harbour
- 1tph to Portsmouth & Southsea
- Great Western Railway
- 1tph to Cardiff Central
- 1t a day to Brighton
- 1tph to Portsmouth Harbour
| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
|---|---|
| 2004/05 | 1.246 million |
| 2005/06 |  1.289 million |
| 2006/07 | 1.369 million |
| 2007/08 | 1.465 million |
| 2008/09 | 1.577 million |
| 2009/10 |  1.486 million |
| 2010/11 | 1.530 million |
| 2011/12 | 1.583 million |
| 2012/13 | 1.552 million |
| 2013/14 | 1.571 million |
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