Bath Spa railway station

Bath Spa railway station is the principal railway station in the city of Bath, in South West England and is served mainly by First Great Western Main Line services and other FGW services with some South West Train services and a CrossCountry service.

Architecture

Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is a grade II* listed building.^[1] It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables, and lies on the north bank of the Avon, with the line swerving across from the southern bank to the station and then back again.^[2] Opened on 31 August 1840, the station was originally named Bath, but was given its present name of Bath Spa in 1949 to distinguish it from the other station at Bath, Bath Green Park, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951.^[3]

A convenient characteristic for passengers is that ramps lead up to both platforms, permitting the disabled or those with luggage to have ready access from the platforms to cars or taxis. There is also a footbridge, formerly tolled, leading directly from the station across the Avon and allowing direct access to the area of Widcombe. The Ha'penny Bridge which previously crossed the river collapsed in 1877.^[4]

The station has wide spacing between the platforms as it was originally built when the GWR used broad gauge track. When it was originally built a hammerbeam roof covered the area between the platforms; however this was removed in 1897.^[1] This large gap between the up and down-lines used to accommodate a through bi-directional line but is now empty.^[5]

Services

Since the closure of the Midland Region station at Green Park^[6] after the Beeching report, all of Bath's rail services run through Bath Spa. The station is also conveniently situated for connection with bus services.

The station has regular (approximately half-hourly each way) inter-city services to London Paddington via Swindon & Reading & Chippenham and to Bristol Temple Meads (with some extensions to Weston-super-Mare, Taunton and beyond).

It is also served hourly (two-hourly on Sundays) by the Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour and Gloucester & Bristol to Westbury and Weymouth regional trains, plus a limited service to London Waterloo via Salisbury and Basingstoke (four per day Monday-Saturday, two on Sunday).

Since the May 2010 timetable started, an early morning CrossCountry service to Glasgow Central via Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh starts at Bath. It departs at 0609 on Mondays to Fridays, but does not run on weekends. It arrives into Glasgow at 14:12. There is no southbound return.^[7]

Management and redevelopment

Since railway privatisation First Great Western has managed Bath Spa. In 2005 they obtained listed building consent for a number of alterations to the building, including the installation of lifts to the platforms. This is expected to enable them to remove the convenient direct access between the platforms and the car parks. Ticket barriers have also been installed.^[8] There are also plans to change some of the arches at the station to encourage retail use.^[9]

The proposed removal of the Northern ramp, scheduled for early September 2011, has not been without controversy. Cyclists and passengers with disabilities expressed concern that when the new lifts break down, they will find it difficult to get to and from the London-bound platform.^[10] Campaigners asked for a delay to the ramp removal in order to test the reliability of the lifts.^[11] This request was acknowledged and the trial period for the lift was extended by a week.^[12]

Other developments have taken place to more closely integrate the station with the new Bath bus station as part of the SouthGate shopping centre.^[13]

Other stations in Bath

The only other open station in Bath is Oldfield Park, a small commuter station in a western suburb, with limited services to Bristol or Bath Spa, and onward stations.^[14]

Other now closed stations in Bath were Green Park (the Midland terminus, of which the over-all roof and primary buildings survive, and which for most of its life was named "Bath Queen Square"),^[6] Bathampton and Weston (a suburban station on the Midland line which closed in 1953). Westmoreland Street, later a goods station, was the original GWR passenger station, and is now demolished). Twerton-on-Avon, and Hampton Row Halt, both on the GWR route, closed after World War I.^[15]

References

External links

• Slow motion video of Bath Spa