Origins
After the Napoleonic Wars there was great concern about the security of coastal shipping routes between Southampton and London, and a number of canal schemes were put forward. After main line railways were seen to be feasible, the idea of connecting places in the South West of England to London was much discussed.
An early proposal for a railway came from Robert Johnson and Abel Ros Dottin, member of parliament for Southampton. A prospectus was published on 23 October 1830 and a public meeting in February 1831 gave unanimous support to the proposals. The railway was promoted as the Southampton, London and Branch Railway and Dock Company, with capital of £1.5 million in shares of £20. The line was to link Southampton and London, and to extend a branch to districts between Hungerford and Bristol. At this time the Great Western Railway (GWR) was being promoted, and the two schemes soon became competitors in providing railway connection to towns in the South West.
However commercial interests in Bristol and Bath seemed to favour the GWR's proposals over the Southampton company's, and a more modest initial scheme, linking only Southampton and London, was developed. Two alternative routes were surveyed by the engineer Francis Giles. One was broadly the route finally adopted, from London via Kingston, Woking and Winchester; the other was a more southerly alignment through Guildford, Farnham and Alresford to Winchester. The southerly route passed through more prosperous agricultural land, but the northern route was preferred by the proprietors because of the better access to possible branch lines to Bristol via Hungerford, Devizes, and Bath).
The railway was promoted as the London and Southampton Railway (L&SR) and authorised by Act of Parliament on 25 July 1834.
Read more about this topic: London And South Western Railway
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