Trains at: Didcot Parkway, GWML, 12/08/23

A short but sweet visit to Didcot Parkway on the Great Western Mainline where we see plenty of services from Great Western Railway, Cross Country and freight from Freightliner.

Didcot Parkway was built and opened by the Great Western Railway in 1844. When First built the station was simpky known as Didcot. It wasn't until 1985 when British Rail renamed the station due to the then new bus link that was brought in. Thus making it a parkway station.

The town of Didcot owes is growth and success to the coming of the railway, as the same year as the station being opened the line towards Oxford was also opened. This allowed greater ease of access for passengers and freight alike which meant the local economy was able to grow which meant more people could move out of the louder areas of the country and move to a relatively small community. But this eventually became a sprawling town with markets a plenty and houses popping up all over the place.

There was another line that lived here before it closed. This was the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. This line saw a connection from the Great Western Mainline down to Southampton via Newbury, Highclere, Winchester and Eastleigh. This line though finally saw the end of its life in 1962 just before the infamous Dr Beeching report saw the closure of hundreds of rural lines across the UK. Many of which are actually in the process of being brought back into working life.

There used to a regular commuter service running to Swindon from Didcot Parkway that would call at Steventon, Wantage Road, Challow, Uffington, Shrivenham and Stratton Park. This was run up until 1964 when the service was terminated. Which then resulted in the closure of those stations.

1985 saw the current station building opened along with a 600 space car park to make the station more accessible, it would also serve as an entrance for the Park and Ride buses to pull into which would also aim to take traffic off the city Centre roads. This has still worked to this day and is very successful, however A new multi story car park is currently being built to the West of the station.

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