page_title: Basingstoke
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Basingstoke / Transport
caption_attribution_description: English: Basingstoke railway station
context_page_description: Basingstoke is the largest town in the administrative county of Hampshire. It is situated in south central England, and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is located 30 miles northeast of Southampton, 48 miles southwest of London, and 19 miles northeast of the county town and former capital Winchester. According to the 2016 population estimate the town had a population of 113,776. It is part of the borough of Basingstoke and Deane and part of the parliamentary constituency of Basingstoke. Basingstoke is often nicknamed "Doughnut City" or "Roundabout City" because of the number of large roundabouts.
  Basingstoke is an old market town expanded in the mid 1960s as a result of an agreement between London County Council and Hampshire County Council. It was developed rapidly after World War II, along with various other towns in the United Kingdom, in order to accommodate part of the London 'overspill' as perceived under the Greater London Plan in 1944. Basingstoke market was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and it remained a small market town until the early 1960s. At the start of World War II the population was little more than 13,000.
context_section_description: Basingstoke is at Junction 6 and Junction 7 of the M3 motorway, which skirts the town's southeastern edge, linking the town to London and to Southampton and the south-west. The central area of the town is encircled by a ring road constructed in the 1960s named The Ringway, and is bisected east to west by the A3010 (Churchill Way). The A33 runs north east to Reading and the M4 Motorway, and south west to Winchester.  The A30 runs east to Hook and west to Salisbury. The A303 begins a few miles south west of Basingstoke to head west towards Wiltshire and the West Country, sharing the first few miles with the A30. The A339 runs south east to Alton and north west to Newbury. Basingstoke has a reputation for having a large density of roundabouts, and with some larger roundabouts dealing with traffic from six directions, this only adds to the illusion, as does the fact some multilevel junctions on the Ringway were never built or completed.
  The South Western Main Line railway runs east and west through the centre of the town and Basingstoke railway station linking it to the West of England Main Line to Salisbury and the South West of England, London Waterloo (the fastest train Basingstoke to London takes 44 minutes), Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth, and via the Eastleigh to Fareham Line and West Coastway Line to Portsmouth and Brighton. The West of England Main Line to Salisbury and Exeter diverges at Worting Junction, to the west. The Basingstoke Branch runs north-east to Reading, providing services to Oxford, Birmingham, the north of England and Scotland. The town was the terminus of the defunct Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway. Current rail services from Basingstoke are operated by South Western Railway, CrossCountry and Great Western Railway.
  Most bus services in the town operate from Basingstoke Bus Station. The majority are provided by the Stagecoach Group through their Stagecoach in Hampshire sub-division. Basingstoke Community Transport and Communities First Wessex run some smaller routes. A park and ride shuttle operated by Stagecoach links Basingstoke Leisure Park with Basing View, via Basingstoke Railway Station. This service provides a daytime service at roughly 10-minute intervals throughout the week. 
  A peak time service is provided by Courtney Coaches between Chineham Business Park and the railway station. National Express offers direct coach services to London, Heathrow Airport and Southampton from the bus station.
  Separating provision for cyclists from other road traffic was not part of the remit of the 1960s town redevelopment, and in 1996 the perception of provision for cyclists was very poor. A Basingstoke Area Cycling Strategy was developed in 1999 and subsequently an extensive cycle network has been developed mainly utilising on-road routes or off-road routes that run parallel with and directly alongside roads. Basingstoke was linked to Reading on the National Cycle Network route 23 in May 2003 and the route was extended south to Alton and Alresford in April 2006.
caption: Basingstoke railway station, as seen from Alençon Link in 2005
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