Banbury Railway Station - History

History

Banbury Bridge Street station opened on 2 September 1850, some four months after the Buckinghamshire Railway (L&NWR) opened its Banbury Merton Street terminus. When meadows and the recently-discussed racecourse at Grimsbury were sold to the Great Western Railway in about 1850, the owner also sold the other part of his land, north of the Middleton road to the Banbury Freehold Land Society, which was financially backed by Cobb's Bank, on which to build middle-class houses, but development was slow at the time and some plots were never built upon.

The station was going to be part of the GWR's Oxford and Rugby Railway, before the problems with changing gauges at Rugby prevented it. The 24 miles (39 km) single track extension from Oxford to Banbury did open, and at first Banbury was just a single platform through station (works were continuing to Birmingham) however the popularity of the line meant that the route was soon double tracked barely two years later, and the station was given an extra platform in an up and down configuration. In 1884 an extra up line was added, and by 1903 Banbury had the extra up line converted into up and down bays, along with an extra bay on the downside, and freight loops to cope with traffic from the Great Central Main Line joining at Banbury Junction to the north. The inclusion of terminating bays and freight loops reflected Banbury's increasing strategic position in the national network. The Station was rebuilt into its present form in 1958.

Banbury was once a junction for the line to Buckingham, however that closed in the 1960s. There was also another station very nearby at Banbury Merton Street. Banbury Bridge Street station occupied one of the most strategic and important locations in the entire rail network in Britain. For example, the Aberdeen to Penzance Express used the Woodford Halse branch of the GCR through Banbury as part of its journey and the "Ports to Ports Express" between the North-East (Newcastle upon Tyne, Middlesbrough etc.) and South Wales (Cardiff, Newport) used the Great Central Railway branch line and the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, and passed though Banbury as well as Newcastle — Bournemouth, Newcastle — Southampton, York — Swindon Sleeper, Bournemouth — Birkenhead Woodside/Manchester Piccadilly, etc. Most Cross Country Services in Britain passed through Banbury, which helped the station become just as, if not more, important than the London termini, and also helped the growth of the town and its cattle market.

The station was renamed Banbury General after nationalisation in 1948 to distinguish it from Merton Street station. The suffix was officially discontinued by 1974, but remained on tickets until the Edmondson type ticket machines were replaced in the early 1980s.

The current railway station is on the site of the Great Western Railway line that opened to Banbury in 1850. The original station's overall roof survived until 1953, 5 years before a rebuild in 1958. The rebuilding of the station was delayed due to the Second World War, and could have been based on the GWR's new station at Leamington Spa, which was finished just before war commenced.

Passenger traffic at Banbury has grown rapidly: between 2003 and 2010, the number of passengers using the station increased by 85%.