Cholsey
National Rail
View towards Didcot Parkway, following electrification (2019)
General information
LocationCholsey, District of South Oxfordshire
England
Grid referenceSU584860
Managed byGreat Western Railway
Platforms5
Other information
Station codeCHO
ClassificationDfT category E
History
Opened29 February 1892
Original companyGreat Western Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Key dates
1 June 1840GWR Reading to Steventon opened
29 February 1892Station opens as Cholsey and Moulsford
ca. 1950Renamed Cholsey
Passengers
2018/19Increase 0.290 million
2019/20Decrease 0.284 million
2020/21Decrease 54,628
2021/22Increase 0.155 million
2022/23Increase 0.212 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Cholsey railway station (previously Cholsey & Moulsford) serves the village of Cholsey in south Oxfordshire, England, and the nearby town of Wallingford. It is 48 miles 37 chains (78.0 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Goring & Streatley to the east and Didcot Parkway to the west.

The station is managed by Great Western Railway, which operates local services to Didcot Parkway, Oxford, Reading and London Paddington. Cholsey is also the junction for the heritage railway services on the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway. The station has five platforms, but two of them are generally out of use so fast trains can pass through, with gates closed. These platforms are opened when the lines through the other two main line platforms are closed for maintenance. Platform 5 is only used for services on the preserved Cholsey and Wallingford railway.

Layout

The station frontage building is on two levels, with station offices in the lower (street) level and the London bound waiting room on the upper (platform) level. There are two small car parks, one at street level in front of the station building, the other at platform level to the south of the station.

The station has platforms on each of the fast and relief (slow) lines, although the platforms on the fast lines see little use. It also has a terminal platform used by trains on the Wallingford line. The platforms are located on an embankment, with access to street level by stairs and a pedestrian underpass.

  • Platform 1 – is only used when the relief lines are out of service. It is for down GWR services during engineering and maintenance work.
  • Platform 2 – is only used when the relief lines are out of service. It is for up GWR services during engineering and maintenance work.
  • Platform 3 – for down GWR local services towards Didcot Parkway and Oxford.
  • Platform 4 – for up GWR local services towards Reading and London Paddington.
  • Platform 5 – is a west-facing bay platform currently used for Cholsey and Wallingford Railway heritage services to Wallingford.

High-speed passenger and freight trains pass through platforms 1 – 4 with little or no warning. As with any station, it is advisable to keep a safe distance from the platform edge, particularly on platforms 1 and 2 as trains can pass through at speeds of up to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h).

History

Wallingford branch train in 1959

The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, which opened on 1 June 1840.[1] The original station, opened with the line and known as Wallingford Road, was several hundred yards further up the main line towards Goring & Streatley, just east of the point where the A329 road crosses the line (grid reference SU592851). Some of the original station buildings can still be seen at this point. On 2 July 1866 Wallingford Road station was renamed Moulsford and the branch to Wallingford was opened five days later;[2] whilst the junction for this was at Moulsford station, the branch line track ran parallel to the main line for nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) before curving away.

In 1892, during quadrupling of the main line, the junction for Wallingford was resited closer to the point of divergence and a new station was built there. On 29 February 1892 the new station opened and Moulsford station closed.[3]

The Wallingford branch closed to passenger trains in 1959 and to freight trains in 1981. Part of it is now preserved as the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.

Services

A GWR service to Oxford

Cholsey station is mostly served by stopping services run by GWR between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway with some services running between Reading and Oxford in the morning and evening peak times. Services run every 30 minutes in each direction Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays. Typical journey times are approximately 7 minutes to Didcot Parkway, 20 minutes to Reading and Oxford, and just over 1 hour to Paddington.[4]

Services on the volunteer-run Cholsey and Wallingford railway run intermittently, usually on weekends and bank holidays.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Didcot Parkway   Great Western Railway
Commuter services
Great Western Main Line		   Goring & Streatley
Heritage Railways  Heritage railways
Wallingford   Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Occasional service		   Terminus
  Historical railways  
Didcot
Line and station open		   Great Western Railway
Great Western Main Line		   Moulsford
Line open, station closed
Wallingford
Line open, station closed		   Great Western Railway
Wallingford Branch Line		   Terminus

References

  1. ↑ MacDermot, E.T. (1927). "Chapter IV Construction". History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. I Part I (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. p. 102.
  2. ↑ MacDermot, E.T. (1931). "Chapter I A Critical Period (1863–1869)". History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. II (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. pp. 42–43.
  3. ↑ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (March 2002). "Figures 57-59". Reading to Didcot. Western Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-901706-79-6.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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