Cholsey railway station

Cholsey
Station buildings from street level
Location
Place Cholsey
Local authority South Oxfordshire
Grid reference SU584860
Operations
Station code CHO
Managed by First Great Western
Number of platforms 5
Live arrivals/departures and station information
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2002/03 *   0.214 million
2004/05 * 0.210 million
2005/06 * 0.184 million
2006/07 * 0.182 million
2007/08 * 0.190 million
2008/09 * 0.192 million
2009/10 * 0.186 million
History
Opened 29 February 1892 (29 February 1892)
History
Original company Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-grouping Great Western Railway
1 June 1840 GWR Reading to Steventon opened
29 February 1892 Station opens as Cholsey and Moulsford
c.1950 Renamed Cholsey
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 estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cholsey from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Cholsey railway station, previously known as Cholsey and Moulsford railway station, is a railway station located in the village of Cholsey in Oxfordshire in England. The station is principally served by services operated by First Great Western (FGW), and also is junction terminus for heritage railway services on the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.

The station features in the 2008 "Skills Train" advert, using Platform 2 which is usually closed to the public.

Contents

Services

Cholsey station is served by stopping services run by FGW between Reading and Oxford. Most of these services start or continue as semi-fast services between Reading and London Paddington and run twice hourly for most of the day, and hourly on Sundays. Typical journey times are approximately 20 minutes to Reading and Oxford, and just over 1 hour to Paddington.[1]

Services on the volunteer run Cholsey and Wallingford railway run intermittently, usually on weekends and bank holidays.

Layout

The station frontage building is on two levels, with station offices in the lower (street) level and the London bound waiting room on the upper (platform) level. There are two small car parks, one at street level in front of the station building, the other at platform level to the south of the station.

Platforms

The station has platforms on each of the fast and relief (slow) lines, although the platforms on the fast lines see little use. It also has a terminal platform used by trains on the Wallingford line. The platforms are located on an embankment, with access to street level by stairs and a pedestrian underpass.

High-speed passenger and freight trains pass through platforms 1 – 4 with little or no warning. As with any station, it is advisable to keep a safe distance from the platform edge, particularly on platforms 1 and 2 as trains can pass through at speeds of up to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h).

History

The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, which opened on 1 June 1840.[2] The original station, opened with the line and known as Wallingford Road, was several hundred yards further up the main line towards Goring & Streatley, just east of the point where the A329 road crosses the line (grid reference SU592851). Some of the original station buildings can still be seen at this point. On 2 July 1866 Wallingford Road station was renamed Moulsford and the branch to Wallingford was opened;[3] whilst the junction for this was at Moulsford station, the branch line track ran parallel to the main line for nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) before curving away.

In 1892, during quadrupling of the main line, the junction for Wallingford was resited closer to the point of divergence and a new station was built there. On 29 February 1892 the new station opened and Moulsford station closed.[4]

The Wallingford branch closed to passenger trains in 1959 and to freight trains in 1981. Part of it is now preserved as the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.

Routes

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Goring & Streatley   First Great Western
Commuter services
Great Western Main Line
  Didcot Parkway
  Heritage railways
Terminus   Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Occasional service
  Wallingford
Historical railways
Moulsford   Great Western Railway
Great Western Main Line
  Didcot
Terminus   British Rail
Western Region

Wallingford Branch Line
  Wallingford

References

  1. ^ "Train Times". First Great Western. http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3. Retrieved 12 April 2007. 
  2. ^ MacDermot, E.T. (1927). "Chapter IV Construction". History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. I Part I (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. p. 102. 
  3. ^ MacDermot, E.T. (1931). "Chapter I A Critical Period (1863-1869)". History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. II (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. pp. 42–43. 
  4. ^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (March 2002). "Figures 57-59". Reading to Didcot. Western Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1 901706 79 6. 

External links