Avoncliff railway station

Avoncliff railway station serves the hamlet of Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England. It also serves the nearby villages of Westwood and Winsley, and Turleigh hamlet. It is situated next to the Kennet and Avon Canal and located almost adjacent to the Avoncliff Aqueduct, so it is popular with walkers and cyclists who wish to travel along the canal path or the picturesque walks around the station.[1]

Avoncliff
Location
PlaceAvoncliff
Local authorityWiltshire
Coordinates51.3395°N 2.2821°W / 51.3395; -2.2821
Grid referenceST804600
Operations
Station codeAVF
Managed byGreat Western Railway
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 19,432
2015/16 19,948
2016/17 21,016
2017/18 20,510
2018/19 24,396
History
Original companyGreat Western Railway
9 July 1906Station opens as Avoncliff Halt
5 May 1969Station renamed Avoncliff
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Avoncliff from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station has two platforms, each long enough for ​1 1⁄2 coaches,[2] with a waiting shelter and original lamp-posts, and is served by Great Western Railway. Residents have voluntarily decorated the station with many pots of flowers and, to mark its 100-year anniversary on 9 July 2006, decorated the station with bunting and dressed in Victorian clothing for the celebrations.

History

Opened on the Wessex Main Line by the Great Western Railway as Avoncliff Halt on 9 July 1906, it remained part of that company during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The suffix 'Halt' was dropped from 5 May 1969.[3]

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Railways. The station was a request stop until July 2010, when all stops became mandatory.

Services

A generally hourly service is provided by Great Western Railway, northbound to Bath and Bristol and southbound to Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge and Westbury, with some trains continuing to Weymouth and Southampton. The service is less frequent on Sundays.[4]

Other Great Western services, and South Western Railway services between London Waterloo and Bristol Temple Meads, pass through the station but do not stop.[4]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Freshford   Great Western Railway
Heart of Wessex Line		   Bradford-on-Avon
  • Station seen from the Avoncliff Aqueduct in 2007
  • Bradford-bound platform seen from opposite
  • Preserved GWR seat and old station sign
  • Access to station seen from platform
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References
  1. Ordnance Survey 2015
  2. Yonge & Padgett 2010, map 4C
  3. Butt 1995, p. 22
  4. "Timetable B1 - Cardiff, Bristol, Bath Spa and Swindon to the South Coast" (PDF). Great Western Railway. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2018.

Bibliography
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • OS Explorer Map 156 - Chippenham & Bradford-on-Avon (Map). 1:50,000. Ordnance Survey. 2015. ISBN 9780319243497.
  • Yonge, John; Padgett, David (2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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