Chippenham railway station

History

The main line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) was authorised in 1835, and opened in stages. The section between Hay Lane and Chippenham opened on 31 May 1841. The final section of the GWR main line, between Chippenham and Bath, opened on 30 June 1841.

Chippenham was soon served by other lines. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was authorised in 1845 and the first section opened on 5 September 1848; this ran from Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, to Westbury, and the WS&WR was absorbed by the GWR in 1851. The Calne Railway was authorised in 1860 and opened on 3 November 1863; this company remained independent for some years, until absorbed by the GWR in 1892.

In 1858 the station was expanded and included a goods shed and an engine shed. A railway connection was laid to Chippenham Gas Works in 1906. This connection closed in 1932. Chippenham engine shed closed in March 1964 and services on the Calne branch ended in 1965. Chippenham East and West signal boxes closed on 21 August 1966. As from 1 February 1976 the original down platform was taken out of use and services heading west used the south side of the island platform.

Description

The original station building at Chippenham was built to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design and opened in 1841. With the subsequent opening of new lines to Salisbury and Weymouth, the station was not adequate to meet the increased demand and was redesigned by J H Bertram in 1856 to 1858; it is a grade II listed building, constructed in Bath Stone Ashlar with a bay window at one end and a wing at the other making a long, low composition.

In the station yard, there is another grade II listed building partly in random stone but mainly weather-boarded on a timber frame with a pitched slate roof. It is an early weighbridge house and coal merchant's office dating to around 1840.

Immediately west of the station lies the grade II listed Chippenham viaduct designed by Brunel in 1841. The first arch, over New Road, appears to have been modelled on the Roman triumphal arch. It has a 26-foot (8 m) span and is flanked by two smaller pedestrian arches of 10 feet (3 m). All is surmounted by a heavy cornice and parapet. The north side is constructed from Bath Stone Ashlar with some brick patching while the south side is in blue brick following widening in the early 1900s.

Platform 1 is used for westbound Great Western Main Line services towards Bristol Temple Meads, The West Country, South Wales and is also used for Wessex Main Line services towards Southampton Central. Platform 2 is used for eastbound services towards London Paddington and Cheltenham Spa. On the disused platform there is cycle storage, seating area and café.

Awards

In 2004, the station was given an award to recognise their safety and security. The award, which lasted for 2 years, was given to the station as a passenger survey concluded that 98% of the passenger traffic through Chippenham said they felt 'safe' or 'very safe' whilst on the premises. The station is monitored by 24-hour CCTV and is alarmed.

Services

The station has frequent eastbound services to London Paddington; and westbound services to Bristol, Bath, Devon, Taunton, and South Wales. Currently, these trains run every half an hour in both directions and extensions to stations further afield westbound are made regularly.

The service on the branch to Melksham, Trowbridge and Westbury has been significantly improved from the December 2013 timetable change, with the former twice-daily (once per day on Sundays) frequency increased to every two hours each way on weekdays and five each way on Sundays. Two southbound trains continue through to Southampton Central (on weekdays only), whilst two in the other direction run through to Cheltenham Spa.

Chippenham station connects to the Wessex Main Line via Melksham.

There was a proposal in 2010 from Go-Op to run a service from Birmingham Moor Street, via Oxford and Swindon, to Yeovil, which would call at Chippenham. This would avoid passengers having to change at Didcot or Reading. The company planned to start running services by December 2011, but no firm announcements have been made since.

Future

There are plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line by 2016, which would introduce faster and larger capacity 'Super Express' trains on the line, resulting in reduced journey times.

Chippenham is one of many stations that will be improved as part of the 'Access for All scheme' (AfA). When fully completed in 2016, it will assist disabled and less abled passengers to catch services more easily, with the installation of lifts, new accessible foot bridges and tactile paving.

Engineering works

Northwest of the station is an engineering works, established on a smaller site north of the station in 1842 by Rowland Brotherhood to support the Great Western Railway, and later supplying equipment to the worldwide rail industry. From 1894 it was home to the company which in 1935 became Westinghouse Brake and Signal, manufacturers of railway air braking and signalling equipment. Westinghouse was acquired by Hawker Siddeley in 1979, then sold to BTR in 1992. After BTR merged with Siebe to form Invensys, Westinghouse Brakes was sold in 2000 to Knorr-Bremse, who opened a new factory at Bowerhill, Melksham.

The signals business remained at Chippenham and became Westinghouse Rail Systems, within Invensys Rail Group. This business was sold to Siemens in 2013 and became part of Siemens Rail Automation. Proposals submitted in 2016 for redevelopment of the site include homes, shops and a hotel as well as business space.