It was built to give easier access from the jointly operated main line railway approaching Portsmouth to the Clarence Pier from which Isle of Wight ferries sailed.

The later development of electric street running tramways in Portsmouth and Southsea, adversely affected its commercial viability.

[1][3] In later decades, leisure travel to the Isle of Wight became increasingly important, and the Portsmouth station was about a mile (1+1⁄2 km) from the ferry berth at Broad Street, and from Victoria Pier.

In 1866 a local man named Edwin Galt promoted the idea of a branch railway connecting Southsea to Portsmouth station, but the LBSCR and the LSWR distanced themselves from the scheme, seeing it as abstractive.

[12] Dedicated through trains seemed excessive, and in conflict with the main line companies’ own services, and they persuaded Galt to alter the junction to a new station at Fratton instead.

[4][14][12] However the LSWR agreed only to provide a trailing connection at Fratton into a loop platform, so that direct through passenger operation to the main line system would not be possible.

[11][15] In the preparations for the Parliamentary Bill, the main line railways agreed to provide the necessary junction station at Fratton, but only if the land was given free, and approach roads each side were made and paid for locally.

[12]At first the line seemed to be profitable, but the urban street tramway system in Portsmouth and Southsea developed considerably in the final decade of the nineteenth century, and the conversion to electric operation (from horse-drawn trams) produced a very considerable upsurge in tram usage, and a consequent decline in use of the Southsea Railway.

[12] The joint committee considered urgent cost saving measures, and these included singling the line, abolishing signalling, and issuing tickets on the train, by the guard.

The motor bogie wheels were 3 feet (91 cm) in diameter and the tractive effort of the engine was 3,889 lbs (1,764 kg).

At the outbreak of World War I the emergency measures imposed by government included instructions to the railway companies that unremunerative branch lines should be suspended; the closure took effect on 8 August 1914.

[21] The original 1885 terminus station building was located at the northern end of today's Chewter Close until its demolition in the 1970s.

[20][23] The route of the former Southsea Railway continued northwards in a narrow cutting between St. Ronan's Road and Craneswater Avenue, now filled and occupied by housing.

[24] Further to the north, the line ran alongside the eastern side of Craneswater School and passed through the Albert Road bridge cutting (since demolished and filled in).

[20][25] The route is now covered by a small school car park, games courts and turfed playing fields,[26] this land previously had an Odeon ('Salon' from 1977) cinema built on it in 1937 before closure and demolition in 1985.

Beside this, at 251 Albert Road, the railway passed alongside a building once called the Gaiety Cinema, which has since been converted into a modern-day Co-op supermarket.

[28] The shape of the Co-op building's east side wall still follows the same angle as the former railway line route.

A turfed island in the centre of the present-day Devonshire Avenue marks the location of the eastern half end of the demolished bridge.

[33] The original railway route is now covered by the extended Fernhurst Road and the addition of Chestnut Avenue.

[34] The bridge, since demolished, once occupied land on Goldsmith Avenue which presently has a large modern Lidl supermarket on it.

The supermarket replaced an earlier Danepak Bacon building, built after the bridge and Southsea Railway route were demolished.

This island at Fratton station was demolished after the Southsea Railway line closed, a modern train washing facility now occupies the site.