Publication date 11 July 2011
Minor update 17 August 2023

Rail services for Camberley are currently poor. There is no direct service to London for most of the day. The rail service provided runs from Ascot to Bagshot, Camberley, Frimley, then on a single-track line to Ash Vale, then Aldershot where the train takes some minutes to change direction, then to Ash, Wanborough and terminating at Guildford. Passengers from Camberley for London have to change at Ascot for London Waterloo or at Ash Vale also for London Waterloo.

As a result of our investigations into a possible Orbital railway around London, at one stage anticipated to run via Camberley, we investigated railway lines in the vicinity of Camberley. Although we are no longer actively proposing an Orbital railway around London, we do wish to actively propose a new railway line in the Camberley area which would seem to benefit from a plausible case for being constructed and which would benefit the residents of Camberley.

The RailEnable proposal is for a new railway line from Frimley to Brookwood. From Frimley the existing line runs under the South West Main Line, i.e. the line to Basingstoke, then turning south-eastwards before turning southwards to run to Ash Vale. The proposal is that the new line would branch off from this line i.e. south of Frimley and after passing under the South West Main Line. The new line would run eastwards from here requiring a strip of land from the Aldershot military lands and connect onto the existing line from Ash Vale that runs onto the South West Main Line at a grade-separated junction to Brookwood and Woking. On this new line, it would seem reasonable to suggest a new railway station at Mytchett alongside Frimley Lodge Park. This would provide us with a route Ascot, Bagshot, Camberley, Frimley, Mytchett, Brookwood and Woking to London Waterloo.

RailEnable has coined the term Mytchett Link for our proposed new link line from Frimley to Brookwood.

An alternative would be to re-open the former Sturt Road chord, also known as the Sturt Lane chord. However, whilst this readily provides a route from Frimley to Brookwood, it does not provide a route in the opposite direction except by traversing the fast lines of the South West Main Line or by some form of tunnel or bridge. We suggest our proposed Mytchett Link is a better proposition, also offering the possibility of a station serving Mytchett.

In August 2023 we became aware that Mark E Townend has put forward a proposal for a link between Frimley and Brookwood further to the south. A copy is available at https://railenable.com/pdf/met_mytchett.pdf . We were unaware at the time of his proposals when formulating our proposals.

CrossCountry runs train services from Bournemouth via Basingstoke and Reading to Manchester also to the North East and Scotland. These services do not call at any intermediate station between Basingstoke and Reading. We would like to suggest a replacement route via Camberley. This would have the advantage of serving additional centres of population notably Farnborough, Camberley and Wokingham. Additionally, there would be no need for a change of direction at Reading.

To enable this a connection would be needed from Farnborough (Main) to Frimley. A chord that used to provide this is located on land that has not been subject to development and re-opening this chord would seem to be straightforward. In the opposite direction and without traversal of the fast lines of the South West Main Line, we have illustrated above how this can be achieved passing through our proposed station at Mytchett.

Additionally, an Ascot bypass would be useful. We have illustrated a new station Ascot South on an Ascot bypass although there would be no specific requirement for this.

In August 2023 we became aware that Mark E Townend has put forward the same proposal. A copy is available at https://railenable.com/pdf/met_ascot.pdf . We were unaware at the time of his proposals when formulating our proposals.

RailEnable is proposing Aylesbury Interchange as a station stop on the High Speed 2 railway line (article : Proposal for Aylesbury Interchange on High Speed 2 ). A route from Bournemouth, whether the existing route or a replacement route via Farnborough, Camberley and Wokingham, could serve Aylesbury Interchange.

With an Ascot bypass, the Mytchett link would enable a service from Reading via Camberley and Woking to Waterloo.

It is not known whether this would result in a reduction in the frequency of services via Sunningdale. We note the potential for services both from Reading and from Ascot via Camberley and Woking to Waterloo. Alternatively, these might be combined into a single service from Reading by provision of an additional station Ascot South on an Ascot bypass.

Heathrow Southern Railway is a proposal to link Heathrow with Chertsey or Virginia Water and Staines. The proposal is similar to an earlier Airtrack proposal. A technical issue with any proposal for services from Heathrow to Reading is that this would result in increased frequency of usage of a level crossing to the east of Sunningdale station. It is not known whether this technical issue could be resolved by flexibility in the frequency of services via Sunningdale, that is, on the basis of a route from Reading to Waterloo via Camberley and Woking becoming available.

An unlikely scenario might be a service commencing at Sunningdale via Ascot and Woking to Waterloo.

Some of the Crossrail or Crossrail 2 circular services via Reading discussed in our article Crossrail, or Crossrail 2, circular service via Reading are via Camberley.

On-site investigations have been conducted in relation to this article.

Change control: there may be minor updates to diagrammatic maps without reference to this in the text.

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