It has long been treated as an obligatory principal stop on the South West Main Line between London Waterloo and Weymouth.

Ticket barriers were installed in 2008 and British Transport Police have a Bournemouth office at the station which acts as a regional hub.

The 4TC units would be uncoupled at Bournemouth and attached to a Class 33/1 diesel locomotive for the onward journey to Weymouth.

It was extensively refurbished in 2000 by Railtrack after many years of disrepair and being surrounded by scaffolding to protect people from falling debris.

However the facilities remained cramped and awkwardly sited; there were proposals to move the depot to Branksome which were never implemented.

Before the CrossCountry service was standardised in 2007, there were services to many other destinations than today; these included the Dorset Scot, Pines Express, Wessex Scot and other trains to Scotland via both the West Coast Main Line and East Coast Main Line, along with trains to Leeds and to Liverpool Lime Street.

This means that Bournemouth has one of the longest platforms in the country; other stations with this arrangement include Gloucester, Cambridge, Bristol Temple Meads and Edinburgh Waverley.