Salisbury and Yeovil Railway
| Locale | England |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1859–1878 |
| Successor | London and South Western Railway |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Length | 40 miles (64 km) |
The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway linked Salisbury (Wiltshire), Gillingham (Dorset) and Yeovil (Somerset) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London and South Western Railway (LSWR) network and its lines in Devon and Cornwall. Its trains were operated by the LSWR and it was sold to that company in 1878. Apart from a short section in Yeovil it remains open and carries the London Waterloo to Exeter service of South West Trains.
Despite being founded after the "Railway Mania" of the 1840s, it proved to be one of the most profitable railways in the United Kingdom. This was in part due to carrying all LSWR trains to the south west, and in part due to the very good terms agreed for the LSWR to operate the trains. When the company finally sold out to the LSWR in 1878, it held out for a price which saw the shareholders receive more than the face value of their shares.
The LSWR was completed to Southampton in 1840 and a branch line was opened in 1848 from Bishopstoke to Milford station in Salisbury. Within a few years efforts started on work to extend from Southampton to Dorchester. A great debate then started within the LSWR about whether to extend further west through Salisbury (the shorter "central route" or through Dorchester (the more populous "coastal route"). The rival Great Western Railway (GWR) was supporting the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway as an alternative route to Dorchester, which was to be built from the north through Yeovil. It also proposed a connecting line from Yeovil to Exeter which would have been in direct competition with either of the two proposed LSWR routes. Both companies applied for powers to construct new lines in 1846; the LSWR for a line from Basingstoke to Yeovil and both companies for different lines from Yeovil to Exeter. Neither was approved and so new applications were made in 1847, and after a mammoth 50-day hearing it was decided that the LSWR scheme was the better. Both their lines received their Act of Parliament on 22 July 1848.
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