Three railway station sites have been used in Salisbury, owned by the
London and South Western Railway (LSWR) from 1847 and the
Great Western Railway (GWR) from 1856, as well as two further stations at
Wilton, to the west.
London and South Western Railway The LSWR opened their
Milford station on the east side of the city on 1 March 1847, with the opening of their
branch line from
Eastleigh to passenger traffic. This was the city's only railway until 30 June 1856, when the GWR opened the
Salisbury branch from
Westbury. at first to the Milford station. On 2 May 1859, the LSWR opened a station on the south side of the 1856 GWR station, west of
Fisherton Street, to coincide with the opening of the first section of the
Salisbury and Yeovil Railway. In the 1870s, the LSWR opened a second platform, east of Fisherton Street, for services towards London. It had an entrance from the street and was linked to the old platform by a subway; there was another bay platform for trains to the east. The LSWR station was again enlarged between 1899 and 1902, and the 1870s platform east of Fisherton Street could then be closed.
Great Western Railway The GWR opened their
broad gauge Salisbury branch line from on 30 June 1856. The GWR converted their line to standard gauge in 1874, and four years later a connecting line was laid to the neighbouring 1859 LSWR station, which allowed wagons to be shunted between the two stations. and are in use as offices by non-railway businesses. Until late 2009, services to Exeter would extend on a limited basis to , and . These services were removed in favour of hourly Waterloo to Exeter services. Until December 2021, a limited number of South Western Railway services operated to Bristol Temple Meads, with a train dividing here from a service to Exeter. In 2016, a new service began running once on summer Saturdays between London Waterloo and ; however, since 2020, the Saturday Weymouth services ceased due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and there are no plans to reinstate them.
Goods facilities The former Salisbury Milford station was used as a goods station until it was closed in 1967 and demolished in 1968. A replacement engine shed was built by the LSWR at Fisherton Street in 1859. The GWR also built a small engine shed adjacent to their station in April 1858. This was demolished in 1899, to allow expansion of the LSWR station, and a replacement was built on the north side of the line. This was closed by
British Railways in 1950. A large new and well equipped engine shed was opened by the LSWR on 12 January 1901. This remained in use until the
end of steam in southern England on 9 July 1967. The shed lay derelict for some years before being demolished. On 31 October 2021, an SWR train
collided with a GWR train at Salisbury Tunnel Junction, approximately north-east of the station. ==Description==