Ascot railway station serves the town of Ascot in Berkshire, England. It is 28 mi down the line from London Waterloo. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by South Western Railway. It is at the junction of the Waterloo to Reading line with the Ascot to Guildford line. The station has three active platforms. The London-bound track is a single track 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, and Platform 3 serves the Guildford line for trains starting and terminating their journeys at Ascot. Where trains are running from London through to Guildford, or vice versa, they use Platform 2. All lines are bi-directional.

History

The Staines, Wokingham and Woking Junction 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 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. BR closed it in 1965. 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. The line through the station is now under the control of the panel box at Feltham. When BR 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.

Services

All services at Ascot are operated by South Western Railway. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: 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.