Gobowen railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gobowen

Location

Place

Gobowen

Local authority

Oswestry

Operations

Station code

GOB

Managed by

Arriva Trains Wales

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Annual Rail Passenger Usage

2004/05 *

140,968

2005/06 *

145,211

History

Key dates

Opened 1846

National Rail - UK railway stations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Gobowen from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.

UK Railways Portal

Gobowen railway station (grid reference SJ303333) is a railway station serving the village of Gobowen, Shropshire, England. It is also the nearest station to the town of Oswestry.

Currently trains run on two routes operated by Arriva Trains Wales:

Birmingham New Street or Shrewsbury and Chester via Wrexham General
Cardiff Central and Holyhead via Wrexham General, Chester and Bangor.

and one route operated by Wrexham & Shropshire:

Wrexham General and London Marylebone via Shrewsbury, Telford Central and Tame Bridge Parkway.

[edit] Buildings

The station has two platforms:

Platform 1 - For services to the south, including Shrewsbury, Cardiff, Birmingham and London
Platform 2 - For services to the north, including Holyhead, Wrexham and Chester

The station buildings at Gobowen are exceptionally fine, and grade II listed. They were built in 1846 by the Shrewsbury and Chester railway in a notable Florentine (or Italianate) style with white stucco facing and a small turret. The awnings and the footbridge were added later by the Great Western Railway (the footbridge was demolished in 1987). Although a very small village, Gobowen was the junction station for the much larger regional town of Oswestry some three miles away. When rail services to Oswestry ceased, Gobowen was retained as the railhead for the surrounding area. There is a scheme in progress to open this branch as a heritage railway.

Today, the main building which was renovated in 2005 is used as small business space. The booking office is now located in the waiting room on the southbound platform. Unusually, it is not operated directly by the local train operating company, Arriva Trains Wales, but by an independent travel agent, Severn-Dee Travel.