Cam and Dursley railway station

Cam and Dursley railway station is a railway station serving the towns of Cam and Dursley in Gloucestershire. It is located on the main Bristol-Birmingham line, between Yate and Gloucester, at a site close to where Coaley Junction railway station was situated from 1856 to 1965.

The new station

Following a campaign for the reopening of Coaley Junction, the new station called Cam and Dursley opened on 14 May 1994, about 420 yards (380 m) north of the original site, although full opening did not occur until 30 May 1994.^[1] The new station is unstaffed, and consists of two platforms, linked by a footbridge, a car park covered by CCTV and bus stop with shelter. Passenger facilities consists of shelters with seats on both platforms and a ticket machine, with passenger help points installed in late 2010. Passenger services are provided by First Great Western on a largely hourly basis on the Bristol to Gloucester services.

Bus Services run regularly to the station. The 210/211 service provides a link between Dursley, Cam and the station, and runs to a timetable that links in with trains to both Gloucester and Bristol. Service 311 runs from Dursley to Wootton-under-Edge and Thornbury via the station every 2 hours during the day, and service 281 provides am infrequent service to Coaley, Ashmead Green, Upper Cam and Dursley.

There is a rail user group for the station, Coaley Junction Action Committee (CoJAC), which, following the opening of the new station, continues as a group to press for improvements in the service, etc.

The previous station

Coaley Junction station was originally the junction for the short Dursley and Midland Junction Railway branch to Cam and Dursley, built in 1856 and later taken over by the Midland Railway. The station, also known as Dursley Road, opened to goods on 2 August 1856 and to passengers on 18 September 1856. The station had two short platforms on the main line with a very short and sharply curved platform on the branch. Goods facilities were limited, but included a brick goods shed with a crane. The signal box stood at the end of the platform between the branch and mainline.^[2]

The branch closed to passenger traffic on 10 September 1962, although the mainline platforms remained open for passengers until 4 January 1965. The station closed to goods on 28 June 1968, although the branch remained as a long siding to R A Lister and Company's works at Dursley until 13 July 1970.

Services

First Great Western's local services operate all services at this station. A new timetable was brought out on 10 December 2006 which saw the introduction of a mostly hourly "clockface" service, and a considerable increase in the number of trains calling, with northbound services (on Mondays to Fridays) increased from 11 to 15 and southbound services increased from 13 to 16. Northwards, services are to Gloucester with alternate services carrying onto Cheltenham, Ashchurch for Tewkesbury and Worcester Shrub Hill. Southbound, services are to Bristol and onwards to Bath and Westbury, with some services carrying on to Weymouth.

References

External links

• CoJAC website, the rail user group for Cam and Dursley station
• Details of local bus services