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Bradford-on-Avon railway station

Railway station in Wiltshire, England

Summary

Railway station in Wiltshire, England

Field	Value
name	Bradford-on-Avon
symbol_location	gb
symbol	rail
image	2010_at_Bradford-on-Avon_station_-_main_building.jpg
borough	Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
country	England
coordinates
grid_name	Grid reference
grid_position
manager	Great Western Railway
platforms	2
code	BOA
classification	DfT category E
original	Great Western Railway
years	1857
events	Opened
<!--{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2017/18	passengers= 0.526 million}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2018/19	passengers= 0.534 million	interchange= 5,307}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2019/20	passengers= 0.551 million	interchange= 6,889}}--
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2020/21	passengers= 0.118 million	interchange= 1,152}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2021/22	passengers= 0.352 million	interchange= 3,594}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2022/23	passengers= 0.427 million	interchange= 6,234}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2023/24	passengers= 0.487 million	interchange= 4,805}}
{{Rail pass box	pass_year	2024/25	passengers= 0.532 million	interchange= 5,217}}
footnotes	Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Bradford-on-Avon railway station is a railway station on the Wessex Main Line in between and , serving the town of Bradford on Avon (the station name is hyphenated, unlike the name of the town), in Wiltshire, England. The station is 9 mi south east of . The station was originally conceived by the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, but was not built until after the company was purchased by the Great Western Railway in 1850 and did not open until 1857.

History

The new station buildings were completed by 1850, and also included a goods shed, although the railway tracks were not added until later. The main station was built to the most elaborate of the standard designs used by Brunel, resembling a lodge or estate house of the period, but used local Bath stone, rather than the more commonly used bricks and mortar.

Initial plans

A branch line serving Bradford on Avon was initially planned as part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR), a broad gauge railway, supported by the Great Western Railway (GWR), also a broad gauge railway, in preference to the plans of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), a standard gauge railway, which wanted to expand its territory westwards. The proposed line was to run between Weymouth and Bristol.

The WS&WR was authorised by Act of Parliament in June 1845, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, already the engineer of the GWR, was appointed engineer of the new railway. The development of the WS&WR was part of the Gauge Wars.

Operation

Financial difficulties slowed the progress of the WS&WR and only twelve miles of the line had been completed when construction was halted. The GWR took control of the WS&WR in a bid to complete the line, but soon wanted to abandon plans to build the branch lines, including the Bradford on Avon branch, to reduce costs. This aroused local opposition from local investors and a lawsuit in 1852 compelled the GWR to complete the Bradford branch. The station finally opened on 2 February 1857, with a service of five trains each day each way.

Technical developments

With the development of signalling systems by the GWR, a signal box, with a 30-lever frame, was built to the west of the station and goods shed in 1877. At the same time another signal box, controlling the Greenland Mills level crossing to the east of the station.

Although the station was conceived in the gauge wars of the 1840s, the line was finally converted to standard gauge between 18 and 22 June 1874.

Decline in traffic

The goods yard was closed to traffic in 1964, but was used for coal deliveries for another year. In 1966 the signal box was closed and demolished.

Services

Portsmouth Harbour]] in the south.<ref>GB National Rail Timetable May 2016, Table 123 (Network Rail)</ref>

There is also an early morning direct service to from Bristol Temple Meads, departing Bradford-on-Avon at 5.35 am, operated by either a Class 800 or Class 802 'Intercity Express Train'. There is no return service.

References

| access-date = 3 September 2016

|access-date = 3 September 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160918015755/http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/station-s-right-track-plaque/story-12305068-detail/story.html |archive-date = 18 September 2016 |url-status = dead

| access-date = 3 September 2016

References

(August 2010). "Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western". Trackmaps.
GB National Rail Timetable May 2016, Table 123 (Network Rail)
(11 December 2023). "Timetable B1 train times 11 Dec 2022 - 20 May 2023".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

bradford-on-avon former-great-western-railway-stations railway-stations-in-great-britain-opened-in-1857 railway-stations-in-wiltshire railway-stations-served-by-great-western-railway dft-category-e-stations

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