The Great Western Railway opened Southall railway station on 1 May 1839, nearly one year after it opened its first railway line on 4 June 1838, between London Paddington and Maidenhead Riverside. The Brentford Branch Line to Brentford Dock was opened for freight in 1859; a passenger service ran on the branch from 1860 until 1942, using the unnumbered platform at the south of the station. From 1 March 1883 to 30 September 1885 the District Railway ran trains between and Windsor which called at the station. The goods platforms opened as part of the original station; they were closed and dismantled in 1967. Southall station has bilingual station signage, owing to the large Punjabi community in the local area. Station signs on the platforms bear "Southall" and also "ਸਾਊਥਹਾਲ" in Gurmukhī, a script commonly used for the Punjabi language. In 2007, following issues raised by other ethnic groups in the area, First Great Western announced it would review the signage. The bilingual signs were kept, and they are still displayed at the station. It is one of the relatively few stations in England to have bilingual signage, others being Wallsend, Hereford, and St Pancras International, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International.
Layout and facilities
Southall railway station has five platforms, one of which is unnumbered and used only for freight and special events. Access to all platforms is only by stairs. In normal circumstances, platforms 1 and 2, on the fast lines, and the unnumbered platform are not used by passengers; platforms 3 and 4 are used by all trains serving the station. The station building, above the fast lines, has a ticket office and a newsagent's shop. A footbridge gives access to platforms 3 and 4, while gates prevents access to the other three, under normal circumstances. Oyster "pay as you go" has been available since October 2008 for journeys to or from Southall. Although Southall is a busy station, automatic ticket barriers have not replaced manual ticket checks and standalone card readers, making the station vulnerable to fare evasion.
Services
Trains at Southall are operated by Great Western Railway and TfL Rail. The Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:
On 16 March 2010, the Crossrail Specialist Scrutiny Panel recommended that Crossrail should give consideration to the proposed regeneration developments in the area, including the Southall Gas Works development and the landscaping of unused work sites. In May 2011, Network Rail announced that it would make various alterations to prepare the station for Crossrail:
New station building with a new larger enclosed ticket hall with level access from South Road
Step-free access
Platforms 1 – 4 extended
Improved passenger facilities including increased lighting and information and security systems
On 19 September 1997, a Great Western Trains passenger train from to failed to stop at a red signal and collided with a freight train, killing 7 people and injuring 139 others. The train driver, Larry Harrison, was charged with manslaughter, but the case against him was dropped. Great Western Trains was fined £1.5 million for the crash. Following this accident and the more serious Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash some miles east, First Great Western requires all its trains to have their ATP switched on at all times. If the equipment is faulty, the train is stored out of use. In 2007, analysis by First Great Western after several deaths at Southall station found that a third of the suicides on English and Welsh railways occurred on the line between Slough and Paddington.
Southall Railway Centre–a heritage railway centre, based in part of the former Southall locomotive depot. It is home to the GWR Preservation Group.
