Bath Spa railway station

Bath Spa National Rail

Main buildings seen from Dorchester Street
Location
Place Bath
Local authority District of Bath and North East Somerset
Coordinates 51°22′39″N 2°21′23″W / 51.3775°N 2.3564°W / 51.3775; -2.3564Coordinates: 51°22′39″N 2°21′23″W / 51.3775°N 2.3564°W / 51.3775; -2.3564
Grid reference ST752643
Operations
Station code BTH
Managed by Great Western Railway
Number of platforms 2
DfT category C1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2011/12 Increase 5.676 million
– Interchange  Increase 0.179 million
2012/13 Increase 5.758 million
– Interchange  Increase 0.186 million
2013/14 Increase 5.990 million
– Interchange  Increase 0.188 million
2014/15 Increase 6.222 million
– Interchange  Increase 0.194 million
2015/16 Decrease 6.134 million
– Interchange  Decrease 0.184 million
History
Original company Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-grouping Great Western Railway
31 August 1840 Opened as Bath
1949 Renamed Bath Spa
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bath Spa from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath, South West England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, 106 miles 71 chains (172.0 km) down-line from London Paddington and situated between Chippenham to the east and Oldfield Park and to the west. Its three-letter station code is BTH.

The station is currently managed by Great Western Railway, and it is served by trains operated by Great Western Railway, South West Trains and CrossCountry.

Architecture

Bath Spa station in 1962

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 curving 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 Bath Green Park station, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951.[3]

A convenient feature for passengers was the ramps that led up to both platforms, giving the disabled and those with luggage easy access from the platforms to cars or taxis. However, in 2011 the northern ramp was removed in a station redevelopment which provided lifts instead. There is also a footbridge leading directly from the station across the Avon and allowing direct access to the Widcombe area. It was originally tolled, and informally known locally as the Ha'penny Bridge; it was reconstructed in 1877.[4]

The station has wide spacing between the platforms: there were originally two broad gauge carriage sidings between the platform lines. The station was first built with a hammerbeam roof covered the area between the platforms, however this was removed in 1897 when the station was remodelling with longer platforms.[1][5] The station originally had a three track goods shed immediately west of the station, to the north of the main track. In 1877 a large goods depot was built about 500 metres to the west at Westmoreland, and the goods shed was demolished for the station remodelling in 1897.[5]

Services

A Class 150 at Bath on a service towards Westbury

All of Bath's rail services run through Bath Spa station; it is conveniently situated for transfer to bus services.

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

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 operated by South West Trains. South West Trains operate three direct services per day Monday-Saturday and two on Sunday. In addition, there is an early morning Basingstoke to Bristol Temple Meads service which calls at Bath Spa. Finally, they operate a late evening Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury service. This is the last train of the day to Warminster railway station and Salisbury.[6][7] These services are operated by British Rail Class 159 units, although British Rail Class 158 units have been seen on occasions.[8]

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 06:09 on Mondays to Fridays, but does not run at weekends. It arrives in Glasgow at 14:12. There is no southbound return service.[9]

The steam-hauled Torbay Express calls at Bath on certain Sundays between July and September. This was first run in Summer 2014 when engineering works between Bristol and Taunton closed the line and so The Torbay Express was diverted via Bath and Westbury. This proved so popular that for the 2015 season, certain Torbay Express' ran via Bath and Westbury calling at: Bath, Trowbridge and Westbury before rejoining the normal route at Cogload Junction just north of Taunton.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Bristol Temple Meads   Great Western Railway
London – Bristol/West Country		   Chippenham
Oldfield Park   Great Western Railway
Great Malvern/Gloucester – Westbury/South Coast		   Freshford
Oldfield Park   Great Western Railway
Weymouth Wizard
(Summer Saturdays Only)		   Bradford-on-Avon
Keynsham   Great Western Railway
Cardiff Central – Portsmouth Harbour		  
  South West Trains
London Waterloo – Bristol		  
Terminus   CrossCountry
Cross Country Route
One northbound early morning journey		   Bristol Temple Meads

Redevelopment

Rebuilding the platforms in 2017

Since railway privatisation Great Western Railway 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. Ticket barriers have also been installed.[10]

Other developments started in 2011 to more closely integrate the station with the new Bath bus station and SouthGate shopping centre,[11] and redevelop some of the station car park and northern ramp into a restaurant complex at a cost of £12 million.[12] There are also plans to change some arches at the station to encourage retail use.[13]

Bath Spa won awards for Best Medium-Sized Station and Overall Best Station at the 2013 International Station Awards.[14]

The station was modified in April 2017 as part of the Great Western Main Line electrification project. Due to the listed status, the platform canopies could not be cut back to allow the fitment of overhead electrification equipment on the current alignment. Instead, the platforms were be widened with the electrification masts situated between the tracks. The work also provided a larger circulation area and reduced the gap between train and platform.[15]

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 and to Bath Spa, and onward stations.[16]

Former stations now closed in Bath were Green Park (the Midland terminus, whose overall roof and primary buildings survive, and which for part of its life was named "Bath Queen Square"),[17] Bathampton and Weston (a suburban station on the Midland line which closed in 1953). Westmoreland Road was a GWR goods station,[18] and has now been demolished. Twerton-on-Avon, and Hampton Row Halt, both on the GWR route, closed in 1917 as a World War I economy measure.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 "Bath Spa Station". Listed Buildings Online. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  2. ↑ "Avonside House Design and Access Statement" (PDF). Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 29. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
  4. ↑ "A Short History of Widcombe". Widcombe Association. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  5. 1 2 Goods shed, Bath Spa Station, Bath - Historic Building Assessment (PDF) (Report). Oxford Archaeological Unit. 10 March 2000. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  8. ↑ http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/diesel/dmu/158/SWT/BTM-158786-02.jpg
  9. ↑ "CrossCountry May 2010 Rail Timetable" (PDF). Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  10. ↑ "Gating proposal for Bath Spa Station ticket hall" (PDF). Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Bath Southgate Transport Interchange" (PDF). Southgate Bath. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  12. ↑ "First image of £12m Bath restaurant scheme". Bath Chronicle. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  13. ↑ "Retail Proposals at Bath Spa Railway Station, Bath" (PDF). Oxford Architects. Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  14. ↑ Harris, Nigel, ed. (25 December 2013). "Awards for Bath Spa". RAIL. No. 738. Haymarket. p. 12.
  15. ↑ Wyatt, Richard (5 November 2016). "More room at Bath Spa station when the power lines go through.". Bath Newseum. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Oldfield Park". The Heart of Wessex Line 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "The Midland Railway". Bristol and Bath Railway Path. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  18. ↑ Maggs, Colin C. (2013). The GWR Bristol To Bath. Amberley. ISBN 9781445625829.
  19. ↑ Mike Oakley, (2002). Somerset Railway Stations. Dovecote Press, Wimborne. ISBN 1-904349-09-9.
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