Sunnymeads - in the sunshine!

Sunnymeads Station is the least used station in Berkshire according to the latest release of the Office of Rail and Road estimates of station usage 2023 to 2024. 

 

The station saw 24,560 passenger entries or exits which also means it ranks 2,199th across the UK. It’s not far from home so I thought I’d go and add 1 to the statistics for 2024-2025 😀

 

 

 

It’s no surprise that this isn’t a busy station. Located between Datchet and Wraysbury on the line from Staines to Windsor & Eton Riverside it sits in a private residential estate and lacks a car park for commuters. There’s a ticket machine but  not a ticket office. No ticket gates, no loos, no waiting room. There’s somewhere to park your bike though and (apparently) Wi-Fi. It’s very much not step free since access to the island platform is via a footbridge. There is a Customer Help Point and electronic displays showing the times.of the next departures. Two trains per hour are provided by South Western Railway in each direction, to London Waterloo, (via Richmond) and to Windsor & Eton Riverside.

 

 

 

 It’s quiet here, at least if you can ignore the jets taking off from nearby Heathrow Airport. It was a midweek lunchtime when I visited and I saw two passengers get on the train towards London and one who got on the same train to Windsor that I caught. There really isn’t a lot to do while waiting for a train. The best view of the station is from the Welley Road over bridge on the up side of Sunnnymeads, accessed via a footpath and a few steps alongside the line.

 

 

 

 Back on the platform waiting for the next train to Windsor I was glad that it was actually sunny at Sunnymeads unlike when Geoff Marshall made his video.

While waiting I was able to speculate about the mystery object in the field next to Platform 1. A submarine? A space capsule? Or just an old septic tank 😀

 

 

 

 Right on time my 1249 train to Windsor & Eton Riverside arrived and it was 71017, one of SWR’s recently introduced Arterio trains, so a first for me visiting Sunnymeads and a first ride on an Arterio. These 10 coach units certainly don’t fit on Sunnymeads’ platforms so it you’re planning on coming make sure you are in the front 7 coaches. I took a ride to Windsor & Eton Riverside - I think that might be a first too - and had a mooch around Windsor in the sunshine.

 

 

 

 I walked to the station from Datchet village but if you’re coming by train to Sunnymeads it’s around three quarters of an hour from waterloo or six minutes from Windsor & Eton Riverside.

 

With little else to do I took a few photos which are in this Flickr Album

 

 

 

 

 

Come to Sunnymeads and see if we can lift it off the bottom rung of Berkshire’s stations next year 😉

 

Betchworth

20th July 2019

A day out in the Surrey countryside, taking in the county's quietest railway station, a church used in a big hit film, and a pub lunch.

According to the Office of Road and Rail statistics for 2017-2018 Betchworth Station is now the least used in Surrey, taking over bottom spot from the once isolated Longcross.

There were  just 14,972 entries and exits, which if we assume is passengers making return journeys equates to about 20 people a day using the station. This could partly be explained by the fact that the station isn't in the village but a 20 minute walk away along a route that couldn't be described as pedestrian friendly - including having to cross the busy A25 Dorking to Reigate road. To reach either of those places, or even Guildford, most people are going to drive.

The station building is now in private hands and when I was there the interior was being redecorated. The ground floor now being converted to offices along with four car parking spaces, further reducing the likelihood of Betchworth gaining any commuters.

I hope the new occupants of the offices like trains - and the warning siren on the adjacent busy level crossing 😉

If you do take the walk to Betchworth you'll find a quintessentially English village scene which is probably a good reason it was chosen as a filming location for Four Weddings And A Funeral. St. Michael's Church was the location for Wedding No. 1, Angus and Laura, supposedly at ‘St John’s Church, Stoke Clandon, Somerset’.
At least it was a bit closer to the reception, which was filmed at a house in Hertfordshire 😀

 Of more immediate and practical importance you'll also find near the church the Dolphin pub.

Early on a Saturday lunchtime this provided a couple of pints of decent ale and a sausage sandwich of the type usually referred to as a "doorstep". Both were very welcome.

Rather than return directly to the station via the "main" road I took a more scenic and longer route leaving the village via a bridleway the other side of the church and through arable fields, once again having to cross the A25, and then climbing up to cross the railway and join the North Downs Way long distance footpath.

 Following this path East towards Station Road I saw this strange brick tower standing on its own amongst the trees.

Despite looking like a spare support for a viaduct it is in fact a 110 foot tall  lime kiln. Though the area north of the station looks a picture of rural tranquility now it was once the site of a substantial lime quarrying and processing works, with a connection to the railway just west of the station. It also 3 other railways within the site, all of different gauges. The only obvious clue now to the casual wanderer that there was such industrial activity here is that the road leading out to Station Rd north of Betchworth Station is called "The Quarry".

And so I arrived back at the station to catch one of the two-hourly stopping services back home.


A video you say? Yes, there's a video:

And it didn't even rain, even though it was forecast. Win!