Staines West railway station

Staines West railway station was one of three stations in the town of Staines-upon-Thames, 19 miles (31 km) from central London. The station was opened on 2 November 1885 as a rival and synonymously named Staines [Railway] Station as the southern terminus of the Staines & West Drayton Railway — the London and South Western Railway refused to have a connection from the Great Western Railway (GWR) to its two territory-encroaching lines passing through the town, to Windsor and Reading, Berkshire from London, having invested in its own railway bridges across the River Thames (Datchet and Staines) and viewing the GWR as a competitor in Windsor and Reading already.

The station was alongside Pound Mill in Moor Lane, was converted from the conveniently sited house of a mill owner and featured a goods yard. It was renamed Staines West on 26 September 1949. In 1964 there were 14 trains on weekdays. The station closed on 29 March 1965 when passenger services along the branch ceased.

After closure to passengers the goods yard was demolished and a rail accessed-oil storage depot built in its place. When the line north of the station was severed by the building of the M25 motorway in 1981, a new connection to the Windsor line was laid to serve the oil depot but ten years later it closed. The station building survives and has been converted to offices. The platform has been removed in favour of car parking, where a very short section of track is preserved.

The Heathrow Airtrack scheme for a rail connection from Heathrow Airport to lines from Waterloo would approximate part of the Staines West route.