To support the eastward expansion of Bracknell in the 1980s, British Rail opened the station at Martins Heron on 3 October 1988. This was the eighth new station opened by Network SouthEast in two years, and cost £500,000, which was jointly met by BR and Berkshire County Council. The platforms and part of the station building were built on railway land, but the access road and car park are on land owned by Tesco. This land, and part of the building costs, were contributed by Tesco as a condition of being granted planning permission for a supermarket. The station building was a brick chalet construction, which was far more attractive than the 1970s concrete buildings seen at many other stations on the line. Just to the east of the station, the local road passes over the railway on a bridge and there is a footpath underneath. In line with the local council policy of decorating all pedestrian underpasses, they commissioned two railway-themed murals for the overbridge walls in 1989. On the north wall is a Great Western scene and on the south wall, a Southern railway scene. Both are visible from passing trains and remain remarkably undamaged.
Description
Martins Heron has two basic platforms with entrances on both platforms, and a wooden footbridge joining them. Platform 1 has a ticket office and enclosed waiting room, that is open in the morning, 7 days a week. Both platforms have a ticket machine and shelter, and were originally long enough for eight coach trains. In 2016 they were extended to the east to accommodate ten coach trains as part of South West Trains' project to increase capacity on their major routes. The station is accessed via the Tesco supermarket delivery access road and has a small car park for around 40 cars, along with 2 disabled spaces and cycle lockers. Unusually, as the car park is on land owned by the supermarket, there are no charges for parking, making it popular amongst commuters. Originally, the supermarket also allowed commuters to use to main supermarket car park, but in 2010 they implemented a 3-hour maximum parking time to discourage commuters as the car park was getting too full. For similar reasons, most of the local side streets have a parking restriction between 11am and 12pm to discourage commuters leaving their cars in this residential area.
Services
Martins Heron is served by all trains between and, which run every 30 minutes Monday to Sunday, with additional peak services increasing frequencies to about every 15 minutes in the evening. Trains from Martins Heron take about 55 minutes to reach London Waterloo and 20 minutes to reach Reading.
