Boscombe railway station

Boscombe railway station was a station in Bournemouth, now in the county of Dorset, England (the station was located in Hampshire for the entirety of its existence). It was opened in 1897 at which time the previous station with the name was renamed Pokesdown. The station served the Royal Victoria Hospital and the centre of Boscombe around the Royal Arcade. It was also the closest station to Dean Court, the home of the football club known during the station's life as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic FC. The station had a goods yard which received traffic from a large area of Bournemouth, and a large coal depot with sidings. It also had substantial brick buildings which were demolished a few years after closure. Closure took place, just before the electrification of the line through it, on 4 October 1965.

View eastward, towards Southampton in 1963

Boscombe
The site of the station, October 2007.
General information
LocationBoscombe, Borough of Bournemouth
England
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Pre-groupingLondon and South Western Railway
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
1 June 1897Station opened
4 October 1965Station closed

The site today

The area of the station yard is now occupied by a small industrial estate and the old coal yard awaits redevelopment. Trains on the South West Main Line pass the piles of gravel that are all that remain of the platforms. These can still be seen alongside the line from the bridge that carries the Ashley Road over the line just to the west of the site.

There have been calls for the re-opening of the station by the Dorset Area Rail Transport System,[1] as well as by the Bournemouth Liberal Democrats.[2] A major reported stumbling block to reopening is the substantial cost of installing lifts to the tracks and extending the platforms to accommodate 10-car trains.[3]

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Pokesdown   British Rail
Southern Region
South West Main Line		   Bournemouth

References
  1. Dorset Area Rail Transport System
  2. Bournemouth Liberal Democrats Manifesto Archived 27 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Bournemouth Echo, "Warning over Boscombe station costs", 12 May 2009.

Further reading
  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Station on navigable O.S. map

50.73082°N 1.83961°W / 50.73082; -1.83961

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