it avoided the busiest part of Portsmouth, but its distance from the station was about the same; from 15 May 1865 the Landport and Southsea Tramway Company started operation between the station and Clarence Pier. The Tramway Company’s operation had the effect of developing interest in Southsea as a residential location, and in time it became a popular middle-class area. In 1866 a local man named Edwin Galt promoted the idea of a branch railway connecting Southsea to Portsmouth station, but the LBSCR and the LSWR distanced themselves from the scheme, seeing it as abstractive. Although the proposal obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 12 July 1867, it failed to get built due to lack of share subscription. A railway scheme promoted once again In 1876 the main line railway was extended from the Portsmouth terminus to Portsmouth Harbour. There was a direct transfer to the Isle of Wight ferries, and this was immensely more convenient for most travellers, so that as a result Clarence Pier reduced in popularity as a ferry terminal, and the tramway lost business correspondingly. Galt and his partners revived a scheme for a Southsea Railway in 1878; at first it was to run from a junction station at Copnor, running south beside the main line until diverging. Galt intended this to permit the operation of through trains from London: if he was to encourage family travel to the Isle of Wight to use his line and the Clarence Pier, he wanted to avoid the necessity of a change of trains at the junction station. Dedicated through trains seemed excessive, and in conflict with the main line companies’ own services, and they persuaded Galt to alter the junction to a new station at Fratton instead. (Station Road in Copnor was built in anticipation at the time, and is extant now.) This scheme was authorised by Act of 26 August 1880; authorised share capital was £50,000. Raising share capital again proved difficult, but in 1882 the LSWR subscribed enough to enable a start to be made. A decision had evidently been taken to modify the route, and a further Act of 2 August 1883 authorised the change. The line was to be double track, 1 mile 24 chains (2,092 m) long. The terminus at Granada Road, Southsea had three platforms and the terminal buildings were said to be in the Queen Anne style on a lavish