POOLE RAILWAY STATION

'Poole railway station' is a railway station on the South Western Main Line serving the town of Poole in Dorset, England. The station itself is near to Poole Harbour. It is one of 4 stations in the Borough of Poole.
The station is operated by South West Trains and is served by the London Waterloo to Weymouth express service and the Wareham stopping service. It's also the terminus for the London Waterloo to Poole stopping service. Virgin Trains used to operate services from Poole to the North West and Scotland but these now terminate at Bournemouth. The station still sees occasional Virgin Trains on empty stock movements.
The original station buildings were situated closer to the site of Towngate Bridge which replaced a level crossing in 1971. These buildings were replaced by a British Rail prefabricated structure in the 1970s. This was replaced by the current station building built in the late 1980s. The current station buildings and footbridge are to be replaced as part of redevelopment plans for the old goods yard. A hotel is to be built on the site of the current station building.
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The station has 2 platforms capable of handling trains of 12 coaches, platform 1 is bi-directional. Trains from London terminating at the station regularly use platform 1 before moving to the empty stock sidings further west and reversing for the return service. There was a goods line to Poole Quay which joined the main line at the Hamworthy end of the station. It ran along part of what is now the Holes Bay relief road and West Quay Road. It closed in May 1960 and was removed in 1961.
Plans for the new South Western Rail Franchise propose that the Wareham stopping service be replaced by a stopping service from London Waterloo to Weymouth, this would be an extension of the stopping service that currently terminates at Poole. The existing Weymouth service would become an express between Poole and Weymouth only stopping at certain stations. The current London Waterloo to Southampton Central service would be extended to Poole (though it was originally proposed that this service terminate at Bournemouth) to compensate for the loss of the Wareham train and maintain service levels from the station.
Under the station name signs on the platforms are additional boards displaying the logo of Condor Ferries and information on alighting at the station for services to the Channel Islands. This is due to the Condor Ferries Rail/Sea through ticketing scheme which includes a taxi to the ferry port from the station. Brittany Ferries also sail from Poole ferry port but are not mentioned on signs nor is their service to France shown on South West Trains network maps.

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★ Poole Station and Goods Yard Redevelopment Plans