could within two years require the LSWR to purchase it, or the LSWR could give three months' notice of doing so for £130,000 in cash and £100,000 in 4 per cent LSWR preference stock. The LSWR Act of 22 August 1881 confirmed this, and the LSWR acquired the MHR on those terms on 30 June 1884. No longer independent The line continued in operation as a minor part of the LSWR system. As the LSWR had been operating the line, there was no outward indication of the change. In 1923 the LSWR was transferred into the larger Southern Railway as part of the process known as the Grouping of the Railways, following the Railways Act 1921. Prior to 1937, the Mid-Hants passenger service included trains from Waterloo to Southampton. There was one through train a day from Bournemouth to Margate via Alresford, Guildford and Redhill. The fortunes of rural railway lines were not good, as road transport for agricultural produce became more efficient, and the low level of passenger and goods business declined. In July 1930 the passing loops at Ropley and Itchen Abbas were removed as an economy measure. Other lines at Butts Junction Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway On 1 June 1901 the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened. It joined the Mid-Hants Railway by a junction called Butts Junction, a mile west of Alton. The line from Butts junction through Alton had been doubled in readiness, but Butts Junction handled three converging single lines. The line was temporarily closed in 1916 to release materials for the war effort, resuming in 1924. It finally closed to passengers in 1932 and when goods traffic ceased in 1936 the line closed completely. Meon Valley Line Undeterred by the poor outcome of the Mid-Hants line, the LSWR promoted the Meon Valley Railway, which was to run between Alton and a junction at Fareham, giving access to Gosport and Stokes Bay, a pier for steamers to the Isle of Wight. It was opened in 1903. It too joined the Mid-Hants line at Butts Junction. Passenger train operation ended in 1955, and the goods train connection to a residual stub of the line at Alton was closed down in 1968. Butts Junction simplification The closure of the Basingstoke line meant that there were only two routes converging on Alton, and in 1935 Butts Junction signal box was abolished. The former double track from