Place Long Hanborough Station code HND DfT category F2 Number of platforms 1 | Grid reference SP433142 Managed by Great Western Railway 2011/12 136,454 | |
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Address Long Hanborough, Witney OX29 8LA, United Kingdom Original company Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Similar Charlbury railway station, Shipton railway station, Oxford railway station, Kingham railway station, Malvern Link railway st | ||
Hanborough railway station is a railway station in the village of Long Hanborough in Oxfordshire, England, serving the village and surrounding district. As a result of the Cotswold Line being singled the former up platform is the only one now in use for both up and down trains. It is served by Great Western Railway trains between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill. It is also the nearest station to the towns of Woodstock and Witney.
Contents
There is a passenger-operated ticket machine (card payments only; not cash) at the entrance to the station platform.
The station has two car parks, which between them provide 241 car spaces. However, on most weekdays the number of passengers parking at Hanborough exceeds the number of spaces available.
Oxford Bus Museum is just east of the station, in the former goods yard.
19th century
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway opened the station on 4 June 1853, and it was originally named Handborough. Between 1854 and 1861 it served as a junction for Oxford-bound passengers changing from through trains between Worcester and London Euston, for whom a refreshment room was provided.
20th century
On 30 January 1965, by which time the station boards read "Handborough for Blenheim", it was the destination for the funeral train of Sir Winston Churchill hauled by Battle of Britain class locomotive No. 34051 Winston Churchill. In his commentary on the funeral for BBC television, Richard Dimbleby said the The Reshaping of British Railways report had scheduled the station for closure.
In fact the station remained open, but in January 1966 it was de-staffed. Thereafter the standard OW&WR wooden station building and goods shed were demolished.
On 28 September 1992 the station was renamed Hanborough.
Toward the end of the 1990s the number of passengers slowly increased, until reaching an estimated total of almost 63,000 in 1999–2000.
21st century
Passenger numbers fluctuated until 2005–06, when the Office of the Rail Regulator estimated that the total number for that year was just above 70,000. Since then the number of passengers using the station has increased rapidly, and the estimated total for 2015-16 was more than 271,000. Estimated passenger totals have doubled in four years and trebled in seven years.
More than 250 passengers a day come by car, but the original car park had only 50 spaces and by 2011 it had been overwhelmed. In August 2011 First Great Western and a house-building company jointly proposed a new development on a green field site next to the station that would provide new homes and a new 191-space car park. This was officially opened in July 2013, by which time it was already more than half-full each weekday. In November 2014 the Cotswold Line Promotion Group found 204 vehicles parked in the 191-space second car park and reported that it "was being used beyond capacity on most weekdays".
Plans were announced to increase services from Hanborough Station, by Great Western Railway. A launch event was held in Witney, at which GWR's managing director Mark Hopwood said that the investment needed was £275 million. Double tracking would be reinstated between North Oxford and Long Hanborough and two disused platforms reopened. The local constituency MP and Prime Minister David Cameron told delegates at the meeting " am utterly convinced of the necessity of investing in this line. I will do everything I can to give this vision a boost"