Banbury railway station 4.36

Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.HistoryBanbury Bridge Street station opened on 2 September 1850, some four months after the Buckinghamshire Railway (L&NWR) opened its terminus. When meadows and the recently disused racecourse at Grimsbury were sold to the Great Western Railway (GWR) 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 prevented it. The 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. By 1882, an extra Up Goods Line had been laid on the East side of the Station ; together with a Transfer Line to the LNWR Route. In 1903, Banbury had south and north bays "cut" into the Up Platform; along with an extra bay on the downside at the North end. There was a Down Goods Loop north of the Station; all this to cope with traffic from the Great Central Main Line, which joined at Banbury North Junction in 1900. The inclusion of terminating bays and goods loops reflected Banbury's increasing strategic position in the National network. In 1904 the refreshment rooms were rebuilt to the designs of Percy Emerson Culverhouse. The Station was rebuilt into its present form in 1958.