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London Waterloo Clapham Junction Woking Guildford (for North Downs Line ) Farncombe Godalming Milford Witley Haslemere Liphook Liss Petersfield Rowlands Castle Havant (for West Coastway Line ) Bedhampton Hilsea Fratton Portsmouth And Southsea Portsmouth Harbour }} The Portsmouth Direct Line is a service operated by South West Trains between runs from London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour , UK . Trains use the same tracks between London and a junction south of Woking as the South Western Main Line and West Of England Line , and then branch off. HISTORY The earliest railway to reach Portsmouth - in reality Gosport on the opposite side of Portsmouth Harbour - was via a London And South Western Railway (LSWR) branch via Fareham to Eastleigh and thence via Winchester to London . The first section of the direct route was opened to Guildford as the ''Guildford Junction Railway'' on 5 May 1845; the line was extended to Godalming on 15 October 1849. The line was taken over by the L&SWR who opened its "Portsmouth direct" line on 28 December 1858, with leasehold of the station at Portsmouth . In order to reach it, however, trains had to use London, Brighton And South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) metals from a junction at Havant , and the latter objected the L&SWR trains using the line. Fighting often took place, and passengers were forced to use a horse bus to complete their journey, but after a legal resolution trains ran freely from 24 January 1859. The route was electrified by the Southern Railway on 4 July 1937 . THE ROUTE Before electrification the route was a difficult one, since there are two summits on its seventy-mile (112km) run. After using the ; the second climb is three miles (5km) near ''Buriton Tunnel'' south of Petersfield . Most of the stations are of similar design, possibly that of Sir William Tite the L&SWR Architect . Closed stations There is a closed station at Denvilles . Trivia A local Drinking Game involves drinking a shot every time the train passes through a station beginning with 'W'. On the line between London and Guildford, almost half the stations begin with the letter 'W': Waterloo, Wimbledon, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge, West Byfleet, Woking and Worplesdon. SEE ALSO |
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