Didcot Parkway railway station

Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire in England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844, and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead.

The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western from Reading to Didcot and Oxford, and by Inter-City services from London Paddington to Bristol and South Wales.

Although a busy station there are no automatic ticket barriers, but manual ticket checks take place on a daily basis.

Just to the north of the station is the Didcot Railway Centre, which is accessed through the station. The centre is a comprehensive exhibition of Great Western Railway rolling stock, with demonstration running tracks and including a reconstructed station named Didcot Halt.

History
The railway has run through Didcot since 1 June 1840, when the Great Western Railway extended its main line from Reading to Steventon. During this period a stagecoach transported passengers to Oxford from Steventon. A few weeks later the line was extended to Faringdon Road station near West Challow, and eventually to Bristol. On 12 June 1844 the line from Didcot to Oxford was opened and Didcot station was opened at the junction. The original intended route would have taken a line from Steventon to Oxford via Abingdon, but Abingdon's townspeople objected to this idea. Without this objection it is unlikely that Didcot would have evolved into the town it is today, as its initial growth was prompted by the coming of the railway.

The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway linked Didcot with Newbury, carrying services to Southampton via Newbury, Highclere, Winchester and Eastleigh. In its latter years it was reduced to a rural backwater until its closure under the Beeching Report. The DN&S Railway was closed to passengers on 10 September 1962 and to freight in 1967.

On 7 December 1964 local passenger services between Didcot and Swindon were withdrawn and the stations at Steventon, Wantage Road, Challow, Uffington, Shrivenham and Stratton Park were closed.

Platforms
The station is located just to the north of the town centre in Didcot. It can only be accessed by car from Station Road itself on the south side of the railway, although passengers may park in Foxhall Road Long Stay Car Park, situated on Basil Hill Road, and cross a footbridge to the station.

The station entrance is at road level; all platforms may be accessed by lifts.


 * Platform 1 – for Westbound First Great Western HST services to Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea. Very limited service to Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance, although most of these services bypass Didcot and travel via the Reading to Plymouth Line.
 * Platform 2 – for Eastbound First Great Western HST services towards London.
 * Platform 3 – for Northbound First Great Western local Thames Turbo services to Oxford and beyond. Also used by some HST services to Oxford and Hereford
 * Platform 4 – for Eastbound First Great Western local Thames Turbo services to Reading and London, sometimes used for northbound services to oxford when platform 3 is unavailable.
 * Platform 5 – is used for Eastbound First Great Western local services when platform 4 is unavailable.

Junctions and yards
Didcot has developed as a major junction between the Great Western Main Line and the route to Oxford and the Midlands. A marshalling yard is opposite the platform and another was once provided at Moreton, a little to the east. Moreton is still a junction, allowing trains to pass between the main lines on the south, and the relief and Oxford lines on the north. An avoiding line runs from Didcot East Junction, behind the marshalling yard and the Didcot Railway Centre, allowing trains to Oxford to run through without blocking the station platforms. There also used to be another line at the East Junction which lead to a line to Newbury.

West of the station is Foxhall Junction which allows freight trains from Oxford to travel towards Swindon. Immediately beyond this two goods lines diverge on the north side of the line. The first serves a loop for Merry-go-round trains to the npower electricity generating station; the second serves the Milton Freight Terminal. Beyond this the four main and relief lines merge into two at Foxhall Junction.

Services
Didcot is a major junction, where the former Great Western Railway line to Oxford, Birmingham and points north leaves the Great Western Main Line to Bristol Temple Meads and Swansea. There is no local service west of Didcot, so local service is exclusively provided by local trains taking the line to Oxford. However a proportion of the Inter-City services to Bristol and South Wales do stop here, with the remainder passing through the station non-stop. Fast trains to and from the Oxford line can avoid the station using the Didcot East curve, and generally do not stop at Didcot.

A few trains call at Didcot for the Cotswold Line to Hereford. Other infrequent services run to Cheltenham Spa or Weston-super-Mare and beyond.