- Cholsey railway station
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Cholsey 
Station buildings from street level Location Place Cholsey Local authority South Oxfordshire Grid reference SU584860 Operations Station code CHO Managed by First Great Western Number of platforms 5 Live arrivals/departures and station information
from National Rail EnquiriesAnnual rail passenger usage 2002/03 * 0.214 million 2004/05 * 
0.210 million2005/06 * 0.184 million2006/07 * 0.182 million2007/08 * 
0.190 million2008/09 * 0.192 million2009/10 * 0.186 millionHistory Opened 29 February 1892 History Original company Great Western Railway Pre-grouping Great Western Railway Post-grouping Great Western Railway 1 June 1840 GWR Reading to Steventon opened 29 February 1892 Station opens as Cholsey and Moulsford c.1950 Renamed Cholsey National Rail - UK railway stations A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z * Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cholsey from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year. 
Platform level; to the left is the terminus of the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway; to right are the relief line platforms; out of sight behind the fence to the far right are the fast line platforms.
Looking the other way, to the junction with the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway.
Wallingford branch auto-train in 1959Cholsey railway station, previously known as Cholsey and Moulsford railway station, is a railway station located in the village of Cholsey in Oxfordshire in England. The station is principally served by services operated by First Great Western (FGW), and also is junction terminus for heritage railway services on the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway.
The station features in the 2008 "Skills Train" advert,[clarification needed][citation needed] using Platform 2 which is usually closed to the public.
Contents
Services
Cholsey station is served by stopping services run by FGW between Reading and Oxford. Most of these services start or continue as semi-fast services between Reading and London Paddington and run twice hourly for most of the day, and hourly on Sundays. Typical journey times are approximately 20 minutes to Reading and Oxford, and just over 1 hour to Paddington.[1]
Services on the volunteer run Cholsey and Wallingford railway run intermittently, usually on weekends and bank holidays.
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.
Platforms
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 FGW services during engineering and maintenance work.
- Platform 2 – is only used when the relief lines are out of service. It is for up FGW services during engineering and maintenance work.
- Platform 3 – for down FGW local services to Oxford, Bicester Town and Banbury.
- Platform 4 – for up FGW local services to 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
The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, which opened on 1 June 1840.[2] 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;[3] 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.[4]
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.
Routes
Preceding station 
National RailFollowing station Goring & Streatley First Great Western
Commuter services
Great Western Main LineDidcot Parkway 
Heritage railwaysTerminus Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Occasional serviceWallingford Historical railways Moulsford Great Western Railway
Great Western Main LineDidcot Terminus British Rail
Western Region
Wallingford Branch LineWallingford References
- ^ "Train Times". First Great Western. http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (March 2002). "Figures 57-59". Reading to Didcot. Western Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1 901706 79 6.
External links
- Train times for main line services, from National Rail
- Train times for heritage services, from Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
- Station information, from National Rail
Coordinates: 51°34′10.20″N 1°09′28.44″W / 51.5695°N 1.1579°W
Categories:- Railway stations in Oxfordshire
- Former Great Western Railway stations
- Railway stations opened in 1892
- Railway stations served by First Great Western
- DfT Category E stations
- Great Western Main Line
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