Upwey (Dorset) railway station

Upwey
Location
Place	Upwey
Local authority	Borough of Weymouth and Portland
Coordinates	50°38′53″N 2°27′58″W / 50.648°N 2.466°WCoordinates: 50°38′53″N 2°27′58″W / 50.648°N 2.466°W
Grid reference	SY671832
Operations
Station code	UPW
Managed by	South West Trains
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	47,010
2011/12	49,522
2012/13	47,614
2013/14	49,414
2014/15	47,936
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
19 April 1886	Opened as Upwey Junction
1952	Abbotsbury branch closed
1 December 1952	Renamed Upwey and Broadwey
12 May 1980	Renamed Upwey
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Upwey from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Upwey railway station is a railway station serving the urban areas of Broadwey, Upwey and Littlemoor which are northern suburbs of Weymouth, England. The station is situated on both the London Waterloo-Weymouth and the Bristol-Weymouth routes and is often used by passengers to change between the two.

History

The first station near this location, simply named Upwey, was opened in 1871 by the Great Western Railway (GWR).^[1] On 19 April 1886 that station was replaced by the current station, then named Upwey Junction, a railway junction that opened south of the original station to provide access to the single track Abbotsbury branch. The branch was absorbed into the GWR and survived for 66 years before closure under British Railways in 1952. On the closure of the branch Upwey Junction was renamed Upwey and Broadwey on 1 December 1952,^[1] and took its current name, Upwey, on 12 May 1980.^[1]

During the Network SouthEast era, the station was refurbished with the trademark red lighting poles, station benches and monitor screens for train arrivals. Rubble from the rebuilt Weymouth station was used to fill in the former Abbotsbury platform for use as a car park. This was done in time for the extension of electrification from Bournemouth to Weymouth in 1988.

Two further stations had Upwey in their name. To the north of Upwey Junction existed a halt called Upwey Wishing Well Halt, while around the bend on the Abbotsbury branch was a station which had originally been called Broadwey. However its name was changed to Upwey as it kept being confused with Broadway, Worcestershire, also on the Great Western Railway.

Thomas Hardy wrote a poem At the Railway Station, Upway,^[2] about waiting for a train at a country station. In the days of steam, a favourite excursion was from Weymouth to Upwey, and then on to tea at the Upwey Wishing Well by charabanc.

Services

A South West Trains' service to London Waterloo

South West Trains operate half-hourly services between London Waterloo and Weymouth via Southampton Central. Later this year, an additional service will run once on a Saturday between Weymouth and London Waterloo via Yeovil operating from late May to early September each year.

Great Western Railway operate services between Gloucester and Weymouth.

References

1. Butt 1995, p. 238.
2. Hardy, Thomas. "At the Railway Station, Upway". Read Books Online. Retrieved 2009-01-21.

• J.H. Lucking (1968). Railways of Dorset. Railway Correspondence and travel Society.
• Brian L. Jackson (1989). The Abbotsbury Branch. Wild Swan Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-906867-80-0.
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.