The Southsea Railway opened on 1 July 1885,[4] and on that line, Albert Road Bridge Halt was opened on 1 July 1904 and closed a decade later on 6 August 1914,[5] it was part of a concerted effort to boost revenue and thus see off competition from the burgeoning tramway network.[6] The Southsea Railway was jointly owned by the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway,[7] and very unusually, the two companies ran the line in alternate years.[8] The final nail in the line's coffin was a government directive issued shortly after the declaration of war[1] that railways unable to support themselves would cease operations at the earliest opportunity; and, as the line clearly fell into this category, the last train ran early in August 1914.[3]