Winchester railway station is a railway station in Winchester in the county of Hampshire, England. It is on the South West Main Line and was known as Winchester City from 1949–67 to distinguish it from Winchester (Chesil) station. It is down the line from . Despite its prominence (most passenger trains stop here), the station only has two platforms. One is on the western side, with the line running in a northerly direction via Basingstoke, Woking and Clapham Junction, towards the terminal at Waterloo. The other is on the eastern side, with the line running in a southerly direction, towards Eastleigh, where it splits and runs towards Southampton Central, Bournemouth and or . History The station was opened on 10 June 1839 by the London and Southampton Railway (later the London and South Western Railway). It became a temporary terminus for the Winchester to Southampton section. On the same day, another station was opened at Basingstoke, which was a temporary terminus of the London to Basingstoke section. The following year, a line was built joining Winchester and Basingstoke and the line was complete. This line was the trickiest to construct and had four tunnels and a single station called Andover Road (now Micheldever), rather optimistically given that Andover lay west. Winchester became a through station on 30 March 1840. As the line bypassed Kingston upon Thames, Winchester was the only major settlement on the line between London and Southampton. Since the original Southampton line ran via the then small market town of Basingstoke (where lines to the west would be built), it was not very direct. Another line was constructed to run via Guildford, Farnham and Alton, which joined the main line north of Winchester. The present day line runs via Aldershot instead of Guildford, and the line finishes at Alton. British Rail closed the line from Alton to Winchester in 1973 but a section from Alton to Alresford is preserved as the Watercress Line. The final gap from Alresford to Winchester is unlikely ever to be reinstated owing to housing having been built on the trackbed. Later, the Great Western Railway built the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. This passed at a separate station on the eastern side of Winchester, when opened called Winchester Cheesehill, later . In 1949, it was renamed Winchester Chesil, whilst Winchester's main station was renamed Winchester City. This did not last long: In 1966